Henge- Underneath the Underneath
by MantaCat
Summary: Gen. Naruto has always had an exceptional Henge, particularly when turning into a girl. There was a reason Naruto went the extra mile when practicing that particular Jutsu, and this is a story exploring why. Chapter 12: Rescues and Risks.
1. Dialogue

**A/N: This chapter is somewhat of a prologue. It introduced the idea for this story; something that I've had on my mind for a while and couldn't get out of my head.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

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**Henge- Underneath the Underneath**

**Chapter 1: Dialogue**

"Naruto… Why do you always insist on using ridiculous Sexy Jutsu? Why is it you're always using Hengeto turn into a girl?" Iruka ran his fingers through his bangs, fixing his eyes on the squirming boy next to him. The blonde fingered the green goggles placed earlier on the bar but didn't say anything. Iruka had initially intended to lecture him on painting the Hokage Monument, but he'd been wondering about Naruto's choice of Hengefor a while, and he'd finally remembered his curiosity while speaking with the subject of his musings.

"I mean," Iruka continued, seeing no response forthcoming, "you have some of the highest marks for Henge, and you could be so versatile with it if you branched out from that female form you've developed."

Naruto kicked his feet for a minute before mumbling into his bowl of ramen.

"Naruto… Highly tuned hearing wont do me any good if you don't annunciate…"

Just as quietly, although this time with better diction, Naruto repeated, "B'cause I like turning into a girl…"

Iruka's thoughts froze. Of all the things he'd expected the boy to say that was not one of them. Was his favorite student a pervert? A deviant? He'd heard foxes liked to turn into sexy women to seduce men; could it be the Kyuubi's influence? Iruka took a deep breath. He was letting his overactive imagination get the better of him. A new thought surfaced. Maybe Naruto liked turning into a girl because then people weren't as fast to recognize and subsequently shun him. There was only one way to find out. Iruka turned to ask his next question, but he'd taken too long and before he could get his question out Naruto blurted:

"I knew it! You think I'm weird don't you!?"

"No, no I don't Naruto. I was simply lost in thought," Iruka hummed for a moment as proof that he really was thinking, "can you tell me why you like to Henge into a girl?" As soon as he spoke Naruto's head whipped around to check his surroundings for eavesdroppers. Iruka was growing more concerned. There were very few things that could embarrass the blond knucklehead.

"Shhh Iruka-sensei! Not so loud!"

"Okay, okay," the chunin quickly agreed, "so? Will you answer the question?"

"I don't know…" Naruto's face was turned down again and Iruka had to lean forward to hear, "It just feels right somehow…" This was normally the point where Iruka would bop Naruto over the head and call him a moron, but something in the boy's demeanor stayed his hand.

"Can you explain it to me a little more?" Iruka asked quietly, gently.

"Its just… more comfortable?"

"Okay. Can you tell me what about it is more comfortable?" Iruka was nodding internally with his theory that Naruto was disguising himself to avoid harassment, but he still managed to catch Naruto's sudden flushed cheeks and further lowering of the head.

"'Cause… 'cause then everything fits."

"…What do you mean 'everything fits'?" _His place in the village?_ Nauto's head lowered further_. If he hunches any more_, Iruka idly thought, _his hair is going to take a bath in ramen broth._

"Ergh! What do you think I mean! Why do you care so much anyway, huh!?" Naruto's head suddenly shot up as he turned heatedly towards his teacher.

"Relax," Iruka waved his hands in a placating way, "I'm just curious, that's all. I want to understand you better. I was just wondering, Naruto," Iruka's tone drew serious, "if you're using your Henge around the village in order to talk to people."

"To talk to people?" The blonde's face scrunched up, "not really. Not unless I'm pranking someone." Iruka rubbed his temples. It wasn't like he could simply ask the boy to explain his mind's inner functions or ask if he was being subconsciously influenced by the giant demon fox sealed in his gut no one had felt the need to mention during the last twelve years of his life.

"So what is it that 'fits' when you use your Henge? Or, what isn't fitting when you don't?" Iruka tried. Naruto looked around quickly, double checking their surroundings, then turned bright red and mumbled incoherently.

"Naruto…" Iruka warned, "If you're going to answer you might as well do so properly." The blonde shook his head, then discreetly pointed down with his hand pulled in close to his stomach. Iruka looked at the ground. Nothing but the paper wrapper from some previous customer's warabashi. Naruto jabbed his finger a second time. Iruka looked at his sandals. As blue and dusty as ever.

Finally Naruto gave a quiet, frustrated groan and the angle of his finger changed slightly so that it was pointing right at his…..oh. OH.

Iruka felt his face heat up. His gaze shifted to meet Naruto's eyes. They were big and frightened.

"Are you goin' to hate me now to Iruka-sensei?" Naruto whispered, "do you not want to be near me anymore? That's why everyone hates me, isn't it? 'Cause they know my body is all wrong. You've always been really nice to me, Iruka-sensei, but you hadn't noticed yet, huh. Everyone else seems to have noticed it right away…"

This conversation had not gone the way Iruka had anticipated. Not in the slightest.

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**So what did you think? The good, the bad, and the ugly; please hold no reservations beyond rating-appropriate language!**

**Published: **March 12, 2014

**Words: **943


	2. Theories and Contingencies

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, followed, and favorited! This chapter will give a little bit more of a feel for the story.**

**Warning: Per request of readers, I have changed the rating from 'K+' to 'T' so please move forward at your discretion. There will be no swearing or graphic scenes, but there may be references or allusions to more serious topics.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

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Henge- Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 2: Theories and Contingencies

Iruka stared at the blond boy next to him, mouth agape, before the words finally registered.

"No. No, that's not it at all. And I don't hate you Naruto," Iruka struggled with the words. How could he explain to Naruto that the village's hate stemmed from the Kyuubi, not his body? He needed to speak with the Sandaime. Naruto couldn't go on with these misconceptions any longer; who knows how long the boy had thought there was something wrong with him.

Iruka was practically out of his chair when he forced himself to take a calming breath. It was late, Naruto was distressed, and they both had a genin exam to prepare for. He reached over and ruffled the blonde's hair.

"Tell you what. Wait for me after the exams tomorrow, and we'll go together to talk with Hokage-sama."

"Jii-chan!? Why does he have t' know!?"

"Well," Iruka fished about for a moment, "maybe he knows something. At the very least, he can help figure out why you feel like there is something 'wrong' with your body, right? He's the best of the best, after all."

"I suppose," Naruto began kicking his feet again, "but…but what if he gets angry, huh?"

"Naruto… He won't get angry with you. I promise."

* * *

Iruka made his way up the stairs to the Hokage Tower, his wallet significantly lighter, as well as Naruto's mood. After the unexpectedly heavy conversation with the village prankster, they spent another twenty minutes eating ramen and joking about on lighter subjects. After Naruto's final jovial attempt to try on Iruka's headband, the chunin sent him home for a night of rest and last-minute cramming for the test.

He nodded to the shinobi he passed in the halls. A few nodded in return, but at this hour, most of those in the building were either hidden ANBU on guard duty or worn out chunin returning from a late mission and neither of those were liable to return a friendly gesture.

He gave a friendly greeting to the Sandaime's secretary Akiko who had been in his graduating class and asked if he could go through to speak with the Hokage.

"Do you have an appointment?" Her brow furrowed as she immediately began to double check the papers on her desk for the non-existent memo, "I don't remember you getting any missions lately requiring oral debriefs…"

"Ah… no," Iruka gave his ponytail a scratch, "I wanted to speak with him briefly about Naruto…" Akiko's hands froze.

"I see. He's not meeting with anyone at the moment, at least not anyone who uses the door, so you should be fine entering after a knock." Anything to do with the jinchuriki went straight to the top.

"Thank you," Iruka smiled.

Once inside, Iruka stood uncomfortably in the middle of the room while the Hokage studied him through clouds of pipe smoke. After a final puff the aged leader stood and turned to look out his window.

"Its beautiful at night, is it not?"

"I-indeed sir!" Iruka agreed quickly. The Hokage gave a quick, barking laugh.

"I doubt you can see anything standing all the way back there, Iruka-kun. Come join me." Iruka scratched the back of his head in embarrassment as he walked over.

"Now tell me of this trouble with Naruto. It seems he properly scrubbed all the paint from the monument."

"Yes, sir, he did. I was treating him to ramen afterwards when something came up in conversation. For some reason Naruto thinks there is something wrong with his body, and that it is causing the villagers to hate him."

"What do you mean by 'wrong with his body'?" the Third looked over sharply.

"We were talking about his habit of using Henge to turn into a girl. He told me that everything 'fits' that way, and pointed to his… his genitals when I asked him to elaborate."

"Hm," the third chewed on the end of his pipe, "there was nothing off at his last physical, but injuries don't tend to leave lasting marks on that boy. Perhaps a trauma."

"A trauma, sir?" Iruka felt a moment of panic, and the scowl on the Hokage's face did nothing to reassure him.

"There have been cases of… abuse where the victim's self-image was changed after a combination of physical and psychological abuse. The worst cases result in the abused being spiritually broken. Gender… I would only expect to see for a boy in cases of sexual abuse." The Third's voice was grim. Iruka felt his insides hollow out and suddenly felt the need to empty out all the ramen he'd consumed.

"Are you certain, Hokage-sama?"

"No. It could be trauma, it could be the influence of his burden, or it could be a phase. Twelve is the age where hormones start raging, after all. Perhaps he likes another boy, and thinks he needs to be a girl in order to have a relationship with him," the Samdaime's tone lightened as he continued listing ideas.

"There is really no way to tell from that one conversation you relayed to me, but there was something else that stood out to these old ears. You said he blamed his maltreatment on this body-confusion."

"Yes. I took the liberty to tell him we would visit you together after the genin exam. I wasn't entirely sure how much or what you would want me to say to him, but Naruto can't go on thinking there is something wrong with him."

"A smart choice. It has long been my intention to speak with him about his burden should he ever become a shinobi. What would you say his chances are for tomorrow?" The Sandaime turned from the window and made his way back to the old chair behind his desk. Iruka stood across from him, more comfortably than before.

"Honestly, not the greatest. He's already failed twice, but his written scores remain subpar and he still hasn't gotten the clone jutsu down," an exasperated sigh escaped Iruka.

"The Bunshin, you say? No, I suppose he wouldn't, and he may never. The Yondaime's seal is so strong I assumed he would have no more difficulties than his year mates, but perhaps that was simply wishful thinking on my part."

"But he has absolutely no issues with the Kawarimi and his Henge is exceptional?" Iruka tried. The Third rubbed his forehead before his hand traveled down to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"True, but those two techniques have one essential difference from the Bunshin: They do not require a set amount of chakra, instead impacting the users entire state of being. We may have to find Naruto an alternative. I'll think on it and get back to you tomorrow."

* * *

Mizuki made his way around the crowd so that he could approach the blonde from behind. Everything was going as he had planned. He'd already informed the contact he'd be coming tonight with the Scroll of Sealing, and had already begun his nice-guy act. Now he just had to cement the relation and point the demon-boy towards the target.

He was smoothing out his smile when Iruka cut through the crowd and put his hand on the blondes shoulder. Mizuki couldn't catch everything from his position halfway across the courtyard, but heard enough to understand they were heading to the Hokage Tower to meet with the Samdaime after a quick bowl of ramen. Mizuki cursed. It would seem he would have to go with plan B in order to meet the deadline.

* * *

"So Naruto," the Third began, "I hear you have an exceptional Henge, is that right?"

"Yah. Wait, does this mean you'll let me pass!? 'Cause my Henge is so supper awesome?"

"Ah… no, not quite," The Sandaime quickly backtracked, "I hear you use your Henge to turn into a girl… and that you feel more comfortable that way," he continued when Naruto didn't respond. As soon as the sentence was out, the boy flushed and his face dropped so that he was watching his toes wiggle in his sandals. Offhandedly, Sarutobi noted how bright Naruto looked with the orange light from the sunset pouring into the window on his yellow hair and orange jumpsuit. _Such a vibrant child… in so many different senses of the word._

"Can you tell me why?"

"…"

"Iruka told me you felt more comfortable because then 'everything fits' when you are turned into a girl. That you meant your body?" Naruto gave a single, sharp nod, raising his head only enough to be able to drop it down again.

"Did someone tell you that, Naruto?" a quick shake, "Do you think that because of someone you like?" an even quicker shake, accompanied by a brief look that could only be translated as 'ew gross, what are you thinking?' "How long have you felt this way?" a pause. A shrug.

Iruka knelt down so that he could see the knuckleheads face, but when his eyes began to search the blondes, Naruto looked away.

"Naruto," Iruka's soft voice pleaded for the boy to look at him, "can you give us an age? Do you know?" Naruto shook his head again. "Do you remember when you started to feel this way?"

"No." The response was so quiet Iruka wasn't certain he'd heard it, but he saw the boy's lips move.

"That's alright," the Third smiled. Naruto couldn't see it, but Iruka could tell the Sandaime was more relaxed. "There is a private walkway through that door there—" the Third used his pipe to point to a door on the side of the room adjacent to the entrance, "—which leads to my private chambers. What I would like, is for you to go into it and try out different Henge until you find one you feel the most comfortable in. There is no mirror, and I would like for you not to turn on any lights so that you can't see yourself. Try out whatever you like. You could even try using Henge to turn into a turtle, or a cat, a fox—" he looked at Naruto from the corner of his eye, "—or even a chair," the Third laughed:

"And when you find a form that makes you feel the most comfortable, I would like for you to come out and show Iruka and I. Take your time to move around in each Henge to see how it feels, and try out as many different ones as you like. Neither Iruka nor I have any other plans for the night." Iruka felt his heart sink. Just because he was a bit of an introvert didn't mean he wanted to spend his evening sitting in the Hokage Tower making small talk with the Sandaime. Naruto nodded and went through the door, closing it in an uncharacteristically quiet manner.

* * *

"…Mizu Bunshin, and finally Doton Bunshin. Each of these requires a set amount of chakra, although larger than that of a simple clone. It would be a good way to train chakra control and work towards finer jutsu. The issue, however, is that they each require a basic understanding of elemental manipulation; something most genin lack."

"It would take him another year to study and master any of those techniques," Iruka intuited, "that could be both good and bad. He would come out better prepared, and there would be a whole year to review what he struggles with academically… but to be separated from his year group…" Shouting could be heard from down the hall, drawing closer, interrupting Iruka's train of thought.

There was a dark flash and a sudden breeze as one of the hidden ANBU darted out to analyze the situation. A moment later he returned to kneel before the Hokage and alerted him that a chunin was caught in possession of the Scroll of Sealing and was being brought to the office by ANBU to hear what the Hokage had to say on the matter.

It didn't take long for Sarutobi to send the raving chunin instructor to T&amp;I for a date with Anko. Iruka watched as his once friend was dragged off, his hateful words still stinging. When his gaze shifted back to the Hokage, the elder had opened the scroll to check for damages, fingering the edges.

"Tajū Kage Bunshin…" he heard the Third quietly muse, "it may just work."

"Isn't that technique dangerous, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, because it functions on the same principles as Kawarimi and Henge; impacting the entire chakra system. The danger comes because unlike the other two it pulls chakra from the body and may lead to chakra exhaustion or in worse cases death. But for Naruto? It may just be the perfect fit."

"Still," Iruka nodded reluctantly, "I've heard that is an advanced technique for shape-manipulation. There is no way he could master such a high-level clone in a week, let alone in time to be fit for team assignments."

"Hm. He's a surprising boy. Perhaps we should give it to him and see."

The door gave a creak, and a few blond locks stuck out.

"Please Jii-chan! Iruka-sensei! I'll have that jutsu down in no time! Believe it!"

"Naruto!?" the Sandaime sputtered into his pipe, he hadn't noticed when the poof sound indicating jutsu had ceased, "Have you been listening in?" The room was fairly well soundproofed for those on the outside. Beyond shouting, Naruto would have had to have his ear pressed right up against it to hear anything.

"Just since that shouting guy came through. Please let me learn that jutsu! I'll have it down in one night! Believe it!"

"First tell me why you're hiding behind that door." Iruka didn't think he'd ever seen the Hokage looking so baffled. Blond spikes whipped against the edge of the door while Naruto must have been shaking his head. "Well why not?" the Third pressed.

"'Cause I'm in a Henge."

"That's fine. If you're trying it out you can come out to talk in it or drop it altogether."

"…But I like this one." There was a beat of silence before Sarutobi replied:

"Would you like to show us? How long have you been trying that one out for?"

"Since before the loud guy came."

"Naruto," Iruka tried, "I don't care if you have three wooden legs and a pig's tail. You're my precious student, and nothing can change that." The door began to swing outwards towards the waiting shinobi.

Iruka's first thought was _He looks exactly the same_. The Sandaime studied the blonde before him for a long moment before addressing him.

"Would you mind removing the jacket so that I can see you better?"

Naruto hesitated and clutched at the front of his jacket, but ultimately it came off without complaint. The difference remained subtle, but both adults could see where the black shirt pulled slightly more on the blonde's chest. Naruto's hands rose to grab at his shirt in front of the chest.

"Naruto, you don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable, okay?" the Third reassured. Naruto nodded in understanding, but had a look of dread on his face. One of his hands drifted down to clutch at the crotch of his pants uncomfortably in anticipation of what the Third would ask next. Sandaime continued:

"Would you describe your current form as female?" Naruto flinched back, but opened his mouth to respond. After a moment where no sound came out, the mouth closed again. Naruto's brow furrowed. He shuffled back and forth a few times.

"…I guess so?"

Iruka held back a groan. What did he mean, he guessed!? It had always seemed clear to Iruka that people were either boys or girls. But Naruto looked so insecure he felt the need to comfort him, and he really didn't care much in the end if Naruto was a girl or a guy. Naruto had too unique and strong of a personality to pay much attention to that in Iruka's book anyway.

"Well whatever the form, you're still my knuckleheaded student," Iruka walked over with a sigh and a smile to drape his arm over the blonde's shoulders and give a gentle squeeze. In return he got a watery smile.

"Yes," the Third smiled, "that is a beautiful form. As is your own body. And now that you are out here, we can discuss the Kage Bunshin from before." Naruto snapped to attention under Iruka's arm.

"Please give it to me Jii-chan! I'll master it in a day! Believe it! Then you can put me on a team, right? Right!?"

"Calm down! Ninja must always be in control of themselves!" Iruka began, but before he could switch into full-out lecture mode the Hokage cut in.

"I'll copy the jutsu into a separate scroll now. See if you can't master it in the next few days, but know I wont be disappointed if you are unable."

"I'll have it down tonight! I'll be a ninja before you've even fallen asleep!"

Iruka let out a sigh as the office finally drew quiet. He began straightening to deliver his parting salutations when the aged Hokage spoke.

"I can say with relative certainty that our earlier theories were incorrect. Perhaps I shall look up his old caretakers and see if any of them noticed anything. For now, we'll watch and see what Naruto does with that jutsu scroll."

* * *

A loud banging woke him with a start. Iruka rolled over to grab his hitai-ate and saw his clock reading 3:38AM. The only people he could see knocking on his door at this hour were other shinobi with emergency information. Mind instantly awake he quickly made his way to the door.

When the door was opened Iruka couldn't decide if he was more relieved or perturbed. A battered, sweaty Naruto stood huffing before him with an inordinately large grin on his face. Without a word he put his hands together in a cross and took a deep breath. A cry of 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!' rang through the quiet street and suddenly Iruka was looking at what must have been over one hundred grinning Naruto's. With a cheer that made dogs bark and lights turn on across the village the clones gave a jumping fist pump, high fived, and dispelled themselves.

The original stood before his rubbing the back of his head and grinning. With a grin of his own Iruka bopped him on the head.

"You idiot! You've woken up the entire village!" Not that Iruka was helping them to fall back asleep, "Come here and close your eyes."

Naruto moved closer and obediently shut his eyes. Iruka gently pulled the clashing green goggles from his forehead and hung them on the door handle for the moment. Reaching back he swiftly tugged the knot on his headband. It slipped off his forehead and into his waiting hand. Iruka gave it a final look. There were scratches spider-webbing across the metal plate and random bits of loose weaving that had escaped from behind the seam to peak out like nicked thread. There was a brown spot along the left tassel where he hadn't noticed blood swiftly enough to wash out. He ran his fingers over it, and with a fond smile turned it to tie around Naruto's forehead.

"Congratulations. From this day forth, you are a genin of Konohagakure no Sato."

LINELINELINE

**Thank you everyone for reading! Please let me know what you think of it so far! If there are mistakes or something seems incorrect please let me know!**

**Published: **March 12, 2014

**Words: **3,343


	3. Day at Hokage Tower

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorited thus far!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

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Henge- Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 3: Day at Hokage Tower

Iruka lead Naruto by hand to the Hokage's office. He was tense, and acting out of character, and Naruto had picked up on it. Despite this, he didn't say anything. He wasn't sure who he was trying to comfort, but had the feeling he was benefiting a lot more from the contact than Naruto was. The boy was so concerned he ignored the strange looks people were giving them as they passed in the hall.

When Naruto began subconsciously drawing closer protectively and cast around nervously with his eyes, Iruka drew him to an unpopulated junction in the tower, took a deep breath, and smiled. This wasn't something to be upset over, in fact, Iruka should be happy. Earlier this morning his favorite knucklehead mastered a high level technique and took the first steps to achieving his dream. There had been some confusion the last few days, and he discovered Naruto held a great deal of self-loathing, but that's what they were here to address.

"Come on Naruto," he gave their joined hands a jovial shake, "let's go visit Hokage-sama."

Upon arrival, the Hokage greeted them both warmly and seriously. He stood to the side as the Hokage had Naruto share what he knew about seals and retell the story of the Fourth's battle against the Kyuubi. He held himself back as he saw the confusion written across Naruto's face as the Third began explaining and giving several different examples of storage scrolls and sealing with a kunai and then a live, potted plant. He stopped himself from unprofessionally biting his knuckles when the Sandaime began to retell the events of October 10th and Naruto's face began to fill with dread in anticipation of the story's end.

When the tale ended, however, he joined the old leader in embracing Naruto and whispering soft words of comfort. Iruka couldn't recall much of what he said beyond 'You aren't a monster-fox, you're my precious student' but his feelings must have gotten through because eventually the tears dried up and Naruto gave Iruka his trademark smile. When they had all collected themselves the Sandaime returned to his chair and Iruka stood back with his hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"Why… why didn't you ever tell me before?" Naruto's rasping voice came through the silence.

"I was waiting until you became a genin."

"Why?"

"There are several reasons. To understand you needed the basic knowledge of shinobi skills and the maturity to cope with the information. You needed the ability to keep silent about your burden even under enemy torture. That is not something I would ask of any child." Naruto thought on it for a while, as did Iruka. As seemingly noisy as the villagers might be about the jinchuriki domestically, anyone who was vaguely 'foreign' would be excluded from most gossip circles and working off an information base of assumptions and guesswork. If they got ahold of Naruto in some perverted repeat of the Hyuga incident and the blonde could confirm his status as a jinchuriki, then assassins and kidnappers would come after the blonde almost daily in an attempt to weaken the Leaf or strengthen their own village before Naruto could grow into a threat.

With that reasoning, Iruka could see the Hokage's point very clearly. It was a common practice. Why else would only a small section of the archives be open to genin and an even smaller section for civilians? It wasn't that the information contained wasn't relevant to them, just that at their level the knowledge would do them more potential harm than good.

After fuming for a few minutes, Naruto cooled down and seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

"Are you keeping anything else from me?" His voice was guarded, but Iruka thought he could detect an undercurrent of hurt as well.

"Yes." Curt, to the point, and entirely unapologetic.

"What could be more dangerous than having the Kyuubi in my gut!?"

"As written in your parent's will, information of your heritage will be withheld and guarded as a secret of the state until you either achieve the rank of chunin or reach the legal age of twenty and can manage your inheritance independently."

"My inheritance? Where is it now? Who's managing it now?"

"Your inheritance is under the direct management of the Hokage. I am currently using it to subsidize your rent so you can afford to live independently off the Orphaned Minors Stipend," the Sandiame never broke eye contact with the blonde, but Iruka saw the muscles on the back of his hand give a slight twitch. This couldn't be easy for him either, the chunin realized. If Naruto decided to hate him it would be like losing a grandchild.

"Okay… I get you taking care of all the money stuff 'cause I'm still working on that, but doesn't that mean you know who my parents are? Why can't you tell me that, huh!?" Iruka sighed. He felt completely useless in the current situation, and if lines were drawn he wasn't sure he could pick a side. He sympathized painfully with both.

"It is not all that uncommon for jōnin to request the information to be withheld in their wills. The reasoning is protection through anonymity. It keeps enemies from extracting revenge on their children until they are capable of fending for themselves. Typically the will is revised once their students enter the academy, because their ability to retain memories long-term develops around that age, and withholding the information becomes a moot point." Naruto was silent for a while as he reviewed the information.

"So that means my parents were jōnin?" he ventured.

"Indeed. I can't tell you much else without betraying the will they entrusted me with," Iruka noted that he worded it so Naruto would understand emotionally where the Sandaime was coming from, "It is rare for both parents to pass away before their child enters the academy. Most Kunoichi retire to raise their children," he supplied as gently as he could.

"I guess… I should be proud, huh?" Naruto's voice came across as subdued to the tan chunin. He thought, at that moment, he understood exactly what Naruto was feeling. Moving on his instinct, Iruka gave Naruto's shoulder a squeeze like he had the night before, and shared a smile.

They were dismissed, and Iruka took Naruto out for a bowl of Ichiraku Ramen. The conversation, in typical Naruto fashion jumped from the glories of ramen, to his unknown parents, to the virtues of one Haruno Sakura, and finally to how the villagers receive him. The knucklehead scratched his head agitatedly when Iruka pushed him to open up on his feelings about being discriminated against as a jinchūriki.

"Its like, I went from one thing wrong with me - that I didn't get any say in! – makin' people hating me, to having something else wrong with me that I can't control but people hate me for anyway! I mean, its nice, and I'm glad people don't hate me 'cause of—'cause of why I thought they hated me," Naruto looked out at the crowd passing just on the other side of the curtain, "but… I guess I don't really know how I feel, you know?"

"Even though I haven't experienced a lot of the things you have," Iruka pinched a clump of noodles with his chopsticks, "I think I understand what you're trying to say. There's no rush to sort out your feelings, and its okay to feel frustrated or even a little angry. Just remember that the Sandaime and myself are here for you, and so will be your jōnin sensei once we've got those sorted out."

"Pft!" Naruto snorted, "you've got a lot of faith in some guy you don't even know, Iruka-sensei!"

"Well, it'll be someone the Hokage trusts implicitly to watch out for you, whoever they are," Iruka huffed, "just know its okay to open up to them, alright?"

Apparently it wasn't because Naruto kept laughing at him until he'd paid for the meal and they made their way back to the Hokage tower.

* * *

Iruka was reviewing the register for his incoming class while Naruto sat across from him filling out his registration forms. The Sandaime would be compiling and reviewing his lists of potential jōnin instructors and genin files in his office around this time, and later that afternoon Iruka and the other teachers for this year's graduating class would meet individually to answer and clarify any questions about the new genin. Iruka, fortunately, had the top class and would get to meet with the Hokage first, giving his students first pick of jōnin.

He glanced at the clock. Naruto was taking an unusually long amount of time to complete his forms. Iruka hadn't seen his pen move in a good five minutes and it wasn't even a test! From the way his brow was scrunched up and he was biting his lip you'd think it was. With a sigh he stood up and made his way over to see what the hold up was.

At first glance it seemed everything was filled out. When he looked closely, however, Naruto's pen was hovering over the smallest box on the page. There were only two symbols, 男 and 女, which symbolized male and female, and small print in the top left corner saying to circle one. Once again Iruka found himself confused by his favorite knucklehead. This had to be the simplest box on the entire form. Even small children who couldn't spell out their full name recognized 'male' and 'female' from the signs on bathroom doors.

"What's the hold up, Naruto?"

"…I don't know."

"Is something wrong?" Iruka asked gently. Naruto scowled and hastily drew a circle on the form before thrusting it in Iruka's face. He hopped out of his chair and dashed from the room calling out that he was going to get his number for his ID photo. Iruka thought he also caught something about getting ready, but wasn't paying all that much attention. He was looking at the crumpled paper in his hands.

Naruto, in his typical sloppy fashion had circled the 'male' sign in such a way that the left side of the circle went straight down the middle of the character and the right side went all the way through the center of the box until it practically touched on 'female.' Iruka gave a heavy sigh. The two ends weren't even connecting, with the right end sticking out of the top of the box into the one above it marked 'Given Name.'

* * *

Sarutobi stared at the photo while Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head. He could hear the blond boy saying something about practicing the pose and makeup, but his internal debate was taking the majority of his attention. On the one hand, the photo wasn't the least bit accurate and would confuse anyone checking it, but on the other hand the photo wasn't the least bit accurate and would confuse anyone checking it.

As Konoha's jinchūriki, his shinobi ID card would be the last thing anyone affiliated with the village would bother checking, and even if they did, the photo was so characteristically _Naruto_ that they would know it was his. If any spies got their hands on his files it would make it much more difficult to track the boy down. On the other hand, there were standards to uphold and official records to maintain, and he should really stop letting the boy get away with so much….

"Why did you want to dress up so much for this photo?" He really needed something to tip the balance and motive seemed like as good a decision maker as any. If it was just another prank, as he suspected, he'd have the boy retake it. He was caught off guard, then, when Naruto's smile dropped and he scuffed his sandal on the ground.

"I just… well… Iruka-sensei said I couldn't use a henge, so I just… I don't know, decided to use paint instead?" Well, it gave Sarutobi a little bit more to work with as far as understanding Naruto went. He was going to ask more gently than originally intended for Naruto to take the photo again without the makeup when his grandson burst into the room.

A small fiasco later and his office was cleared of loud violent people. He looked at the paperwork on his desk, looked at his door still skewed open from Naruto's gusty exit, looked back at his paperwork, told Sparrow to shut the door, pulled out his scrying crystal, and sat back to enjoy watching his grandson's misadventures with Konoha's number one prankster. Every once in a while he glanced over and signed a form or two.

* * *

**Thank you everyone for reading! Please let me know what you think of the story so far, and if there are any topics you would like for me to address. I already have several things in mind, as well as who will be involved and when, but my outline for this story is plenty flexible and if there is an issue you would like to see covered, just let me know in a review or private message and I'll see what I can do!**

**Published:** March 21, 2014

**Words:** 2,262


	4. A Team

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorited thus far!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

* * *

Henge- Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 4: A Team

Kakashi's lone visible eye was trained on the crystal ball. A few of the other jōnin in the room, mainly his friends, stood close to him also looking on but the majority of future teachers lounged back exchanging pleasantries and light conversation in the rest of the room. The Third made a comment about Uchiha Sasuke, the top graduate, but Kakashi's eye had been caught by the dead last shoved to the ground next to him.

He watched as the teams were assigned, and then the Sandaime pulled him aside as the others left to eat and collect their teams. They made a quick trip across the village to Naruto's apartment, which they proceeded to enter through an unlocked window. The Hokage gave him a minute to meander through the rooms and get a feel for the boy's personality before speaking.

"As you know, Naruto recently learned about the Kyūbi. He may come to you with questions."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"A separate issue… it has recently come to attention that he feels more comfortable in a female henge." Kakashi listened as the Sandaime gave him a rundown on his theories and the nights Henge experiment that resulted in the blonde learning Kage Bunshin.

"Dysphoria? I knew ANBU who experienced it while on long-term infiltration, but from what I picked up they felt disconnected with the Henge, not their original body," Kakashi mused, "and I doubt Naruto's used Oiroke no Jutsu to the same extent as any of them."

"I agree. I tried speaking with his early caretakers but none of them came forward about odd behavior of that nature. I have his academy sensei, Iruka, assigned a C-rank mission sorting through the reports submitted by the ANBU guarding him, but have low expectations he'll find anything useful."

"I'll keep it in mind if the team passes. Are there any specific problems you are anticipating from this? That is to say it shouldn't impact performance, should it?"_ I mean,_ Kakashi thought_, just look at Gai_. Eccentricities among shinobi didn't say anything about skill or potential.

"It's important because it matters to Naruto," the Sandaime pinched the bridge of his nose, "He talks like we're making a bigger issue out of it than it needs to be, which we might be, but I doubt it. Naruto blamed any maltreatment he'd received on his dysphoria, and has clearly spent hours practicing the Henge to the point of true mastery in order to cope with it."

"I'll do what I can, Hokage-sama, but I've never dealt with something of this nature before. I can't say I have the faintest idea where to start."

"I trust your judgment, Kakashi," the Third let his hand fall on the taller jōnin's shoulder with all the weight of his post.

"That remains if they pass," the silver-haired man reminded in a warning tone. The Hokage barked a laugh in response.

"You can't run away indefinitely. I fully expect to see the new Team Seven pulling weeds and chasing cats before the month is out."

They left the apartment after that. The Sandaime returned to his tower, and Kakashi went to get a quick bite to eat before meeting his potential students. The Hokage had talked all through lunch and his stomach felt like it had turned on itself. He'd be late either way, he told himself, so what would a little detour for food matter in the grand scheme of things?

* * *

"YOU…" Kakashi felt his skills in emotional control stretched to the limits as he leaned forward to tower over the three children. He'd gone through the hand signs for the stormy genjutsu right in front of them and they still looked like they might pee themselves. It took all his willpower not to ruin the mood by laughing. Once they were significantly cowed by fear he finished his sentence; "…PASS!"

The weight of his decision to accept the team hit him while he was explaining the Memorial Stone. His mind was flooded first with memories, and then with doubts. Could he really do this? What kind of teacher would he be? What kind of teacher did he _want_ to be? He'd never passed a team before, and had never wanted to pass a team. He felt a rush of panic. Somewhere, he was still talking to three kids, but in his mind Kakashi running in circles.

Eventually he left to give the Hokage his report. He remembered about half-way there he'd neglected to release Naruto from the post, which lead to him realizing he had no idea what time he'd told his new team to meet. With a groan, Kakashi decided just to go deliver his report before he forgot that to.

LINELINELINE

On the Hokage's recommendation, Kakashi had dinner that night with his team's academy sensei, one Umino Iruka. He had calmed down somewhat by then, as he'd had the opportunity to think things through, but followed the Third's advice nonetheless.

They took a booth at Yakiniku-Q where Iruka spread out various reports and work samples. Kakashi had, of course, read the bios provided by the Hokage, but Iruka was able to tell and show him much more, having worked with each of them for several years. Kakashi was confident in his ability to direct a team and teach formations, but the Sandaime and the genin's various self-introductions had thrown him off worrying about how unbalanced the kids appeared to be.

Sakura seemed stable enough for a hormonal thirteen-year-old girl. He also spent a good deal of time discussing Sasuke. It was convenient that Kakashi had already tested them, as he was able to bring up specific instances and reactions to get a second opinion on. Eventually they switched over to Naruto.

"I don't know if Sandaime-sama told you, but Naruto feels uncomfortable in his body," Iruka eventually brought up the topic of interest.

"We talked about his body dysphoria for a bit. I'm honestly not sure what to do about it, or if I should do anything at all." Iruka nodded in understanding.

"I don't really know what to make of it either," the chunin rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly, "I mean, I saw him staring at the gender box on the shinobi registration form for a good five minutes. But underneath that Henge he's still a guy, right, so I don't get why he didn't just circle it and hand the paper in."

As Iruka was speaking Kakashi leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. He couldn't have looked less interested in what the chunin had to say and when Iruka saw this he fell silent.

"Maa," Kakashi said after a long pause, "Certainly, if you look underneath the Henge, that's what you'll find," Iruka watched his visible eye sharpen as whatever idea he had began to coagulate, "but my sensei taught me that as shinobi, we must learn to look _underneath the underneath_."

After that both men were preoccupied by their own thoughts and didn't have much to say. Eventually a waitress came over to collect their tab and politely kick them out. Iruka's face became flushed and he quickly apologized, sweeping the papers back into their respective piles while rising from his seat. For his part, Kakashi pulled out his book, smiled, and placed the cash for his portion of the meal on the table. Sliding past the then blushing waitress, he made a quick escape back to his apartment.

* * *

He showed up to meet his team at nine. It seemed like a good, safe time, not too early and not too late. That is to say, being off by two hours really wasn't that bad as far as Kakashi's punctuality was concerned. When both Sakura and Naruto scolded him for being late Kakashi felt like a weight had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders. He'd spoiled his image as a powerful commander, and somehow, that was a comfort. He no longer felt the need to meet impossible expectations either from himself or the genin. He'd just do things his own way, and somehow they'd all figure out how to be a team together.

So began Kakashi's life as a teacher and mentor.

He opened up with drills and basic exercise. He worked the team for two hours in this way. After stretching and running he watched the kids go through the academy kata. Sakura's movements were precise if not fluid, Sasuke's were both fluid and precise, and Naruto's were neither. His stance was too wide. Kakashi told him to bring his legs closer together. Three steps later they returned to their previous distance. Kakashi told him to bring his left foot in. Slowly the blonde's foot inched farther out again. The jōnin was getting frustrated. Naruto's movements and balance became so much more precise when he narrowed his stance, but at the same time he seemed much less comfortable. Kakashi frowned. Was it habit? The kata should feel easier with the adjustments… his attention was diverted for the next form as he had to correct Sakura. Apparently this one gave her more trouble than the others. It looked to Kakashi as if she was swinging her arms around like wet ramen noodles.

At eleven o'clock Kakashi stopped the individual exercise and switched into group activities. He ran them through veiled trust exercises such as one member directing the other two while they were blindfolded. The activities met with mixed success. The main problem was that the one directing would purposefully sabotage the other two. The kids laughed about it now, but Kakashi thought they were reinforcing the idea that they couldn't work together. It wouldn't seem like an important point for practice or D-ranks, but later on when they faced real opponents, Kakashi was worried they wouldn't have the foundation needed to withstand the pressure and trust each other to watch their backs. When the hour was up Kakashi had them break for lunch then led the team to the Hokage Tower for their first official mission.

He'd teamed up with Asuma and Kurenai in order to convince Yūgao to bring a camera with her on her shift guarding the Hokage. In exchange for a spool of ninja wire, a brace of shuriken, and a new wet stone for her blades she agreed to take pictures of the rookie teams' faces when they heard the details for their first official mission. Kakashi was glad they'd thought to ask, because his sharingan was covered and the expressions on his ducklings' faces were absolutely priceless.

The mission was a simple fence-painting job, which resulted in the kids being covered in white spots and saturating their close with paint fumes. Kakashi was relieved to note there were no major issues between them while on the job. Three hours later his team turned in their first successful mission report. Before they left Kakashi remembered to sign them up for a team photo. He couldn't help the warm smile he felt spreading across his face as he wondered what type of frame he should get.

He spent the remainder of the afternoon browsing for a said picture frame, and ended up finding four matching frames of the right size. They weren't anything fancy – a simple square made of wood with soft edges and a smooth dark polish – and he didn't have any time to get them engraved, but they were just aesthetic and sentimental enough for Kakashi's taste. He fell asleep that night gazing at the monochrome silhouettes of the two picture frames on his nightstand, wondering what kind of picture the second one would hold.

That night Kakashi dreamed of his first days on a team with Obito and Rin. Random events were tied together incongruently and his team photo seemed to always be hovering in the background. He woke up feeling much less spirited than he had going to sleep, and after slowly dragging himself out of bed decided to visit the memorial stone to compose himself before meeting his own genin. It would make him late, but Kakashi felt that would be a lesser evil than showing up with death dancing behind his eyes.

When he arrived at the bridge to meet his ducklings, Kakashi was feeling significantly more put together. Hearing Sakura and Naruto yell at him for being late and watching them mess around as kids lifted him the rest of the way out of his slump, particularly when he noticed Naruto's picture-day getup. He'd seen it on the blonde's shinobi identification card, but seeing it again in person that face paint looked like it took a lot of effort. He must have gotten up really early to work on it assuming he arrived on time.

"Sorry Naruto," he smiled, "but you're going to have to wash that off before we go in for our team photo."

"Why? The Old Man let me take my ID photo like this!"

"I want a nice picture to remind me of how cute all my ducklings are before they've grown up, and besides, we need at least one accurate photo of you for the records, so no altered appearances."

"Sakura's altered her appearance!" Kakashi looked where Naruto was pointing, and sure enough he could see the somewhat crooked lines from a juvenile attempt at using an eye pencil, the clumped together eyelashes from mascara, and a slight sheen on her lips from gloss that had almost completely rubbed off. The girl shifted nervously under his scrutiny, most likely wondering if she's have to wash her face to.

"Sakura isn't wearing enough makeup for it to be an issue."

"That's not fair!"

"Tch," Sasuke scoffed, "What are you, a girl? Quit whining over your makeup, Dobe." Naruto froze, and then arms started flailing.

"What!? No! Teme! And its not makeup! Its war paint! WAR PAINT!"

"Maa," Kakashi moved in between the two hotheads before things could get physical, "Sasuke, you really shouldn't use gender as an insult. There is nothing degrading about being female, so dressing or acting like a girl shouldn't be considered degrading either, got that?" The boy scoffed again and looked away. In Kakashi's peripheral vision he could see Sakura shifting indecisively, "Naruto," he turned, "we're not going to war, we're going to the photographer. A little bit of face paint is fine, but you're going to have to take most of it off.

"And Sakura," Kakashi called out as Naruto grumbled, "Why don't you help Naruto find the right balance between face and paint?"

"S-sure," she agreed with some hesitation, "come on Naruto, we'll use your water bottle to get the paint off your face and the stream for the rest." She pulled out a handkerchief and wet it with her own water. Kakashi pulled out his book and found a tree to lean against, and Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets and walked to another tree farther away to claim as his own.

Kakashi listened absently as Sakura became confident working in a familiar area and started lecturing the captive Naruto. "You can't wash your face in the river because the unfiltered water will spoil your complexion," Kakashi heard her cry out in offence. At another point: "No. Putting that on your chin just looks like a tacky attempt at having a beard." He almost didn't catch himself laughing when he heard her wail "You're doing it all wrong! Here, hand me the brush!" Eventually the two returned from the riverbank and Sasuke pushed off his tree to meander over. Sakura stopped proudly before Kakashi, an iron grip holding her victim to her side, waiting for the jōnin's verdict.

The white paint base had been removed, as had all the red lines on the bottom half of Naruto's face. What remained was the red around his eyes branching out across his forehead. Naruto's jacket had been unzipped in the process of scrubbing, but instead of zipping it back up, he left it open so that the hitai-ate tied around his neck was prominently displayed. Kakashi could see red on his hands, but couldn't tell if it was residual paint from scrubbing or if the spirals had been reapplied there.

"Hmph," Kakashi wasn't the only one to be giving Naruto a thorough examination, "Dobe, you look even look like a girl now."

Kakashi shot the dark haired boy a warning look while Naruto protested, and under his unyielding gaze Sasuke wilted a bit. "I'm just saying," he defended, contrite, "you can't say he doesn't." Well…that part was true at least.

"That's 'cause Sakura-chan did it!" Naruto crossed his arms.

"Is it no good?" Sakura looked between Naruto and Sasuke.

"It looks fine," Kakashi cut in, "but we wont be if we don't go get our picture taken soon. I think we're about three hours late?" Kakashi tapped his chin trying to check his internal clock to see how late they'd be and wondering if the photographer would still be there. He really didn't want to have to reschedule.

Hearing his words his three genin became frantic and Kakashi found himself being swept along towards the Hokage Monument and a team photo.

That night Kakashi's light stayed on much longer than usual as he studied again and again his new team's photo. In the center stood Sakura, energy practically bubbling over and eternalized. To her right was a sulking Sasuke, still somewhat put out from Kakashi's reprimand and having the jōnin's hand on his head ruffling his hair. To her left, Naruto. Grin stretched across his face pulling attention. It wasn't quite large enough to hide the blush he got when the photographer jokingly called him pretty. He reminded Kakashi of a younger Tsume with his wild hair, boyish cloths, and red makeup, but his eyes were warm and expressive. Kakashi'd just put his hand on the blonde's head before the picture was taken, and Naruto was looking up towards him nearly radiating happiness. And there he was in the back. Directly behind Sakura and with a hand ruffling both boys' hair.

Kakashi didn't consider himself an expressive person, even under the mask, but when he looked at himself in the photo he could see the same warmth and exasperation as Minato-sensei had in their team photo. Had Minato-sensei been as nervous as he was? He was even younger than Kakashi when he first took on the team. Kakashi set his new photo next to the old before getting out of bed to switch off the light.

* * *

**Somehow, I ended up writing a lot about Kakashi. Please let me know where to improve, expand, cut to the chase, and comb through for those cursed mistyped words! I really appreciate all the feedback I've received for this story!**

**Published: March 28, 2014**

**Words: 3,123**


	5. Dress the Part

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorited thus far!**

**I know this is later than previous chapters, but I hope it will be worth it! I would like to than Nu Hiep for helping me flesh out and refine this story and previewing my work!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

* * *

Henge- Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 5: Dress the Part

Two weeks after taking the team photo everyone had fallen into the new routine. The genin's bodies had adjusted to the physical demands of training and they were no longer dragging themselves home at the end of the day. Kakashi had grown accustomed to splitting his own training in two and working with his ducklings in between. It allowed him to work out the aftermath of bad dreams before meeting the team even if it did cement his tardiness. Yūgao had finally taken the photo's negatives to a store and delivered copies to all the new jōnin instructors of their genin receiving their first missions. Kakashi's was taped to his fridge. The afternoon missions were also serving their purpose, namely by giving the kids a purpose. For all his focus on revenge, the gratification received from the simple missions was causing Sasuke to lighten up a bit and Kakashi would occasionally glimpse him smiling softly at his teammates backs. Helping out around the village aloud Sakura and Naruto to get a better grasp of the big picture that was Konohagakure and Kakashi could see the sparks that might, given a little more time to mature, ignite into the will of fire. There was no denying; the silver-haired jōnin was proud of his ducklings.

With a final wave to the memorial stone Kakashi turned to go meet his team.

The morning started off as usual, but Kakashi noticed something off with Naruto. No, 'off' might not be the best word. After weeks of haggling with the blonde to bring in his stance to no avail, Naruto was moving through his kata smoothly and with good form. After studying him for another minute to confirm it wasn't a fluke, Kakashi called the genin to attention and announced that they'd each be sparring against him individually. The kids shrugged, having accepted Kakashi's occasional changes in routine. Kakashi called Naruto forward and sent the other two back to drilling their kata.

There was nothing remarkable about the spar beyond Naruto's improved form, although that did have a large impact on his overall performance. When he started to show signs of tiring Kakashi kicked out at his chest to knock the blonde back and end the spar. Naruto wasn't able to get his arms up fast enough however, and ended up thrown back with a pained cry.

The blonde landed sprawled on his back in the grass as a cloud of dust rose up to accompany the popping sound he made on impact. _Wait…_ Kakashi paused, _'Pop'?_ He glanced down at the grass by his feet. It was a vibrant green and still somewhat damp from the morning dew. No way was the ground underneath dry enough to plume up when disturbed. He looked back at Naruto who was pulling himself up. There was a slight blush on his face and he was glancing nervously towards his teammates, who were focused on their own exercises. _It couldn't be_, Kakashi thought.

He called Sakura over next. While they sparred Kakashi kept his eye on her knuckleheaded teammate. His stance had once again widened. When Sakura finished her spar and Kakashi called over Sasuke, Naruto ran off claiming he needed to use the restroom. He returned just before the jōnin's final spar ended. After giving Sasuke a short rest to catch his breath, the jōnin had all three teens resume drilling their kata. Sure enough, once Naruto returned his form had straightened out.

The mission that day was a simple weeding job, and was completed in a little under two hours. The genin bickered good-naturedly and grinned when the mission was successfully completed. Well, most of them grinned, Sasuke's shoulders just looked a little lighter and his face a bit less tense. After waving goodbye and repeating his usual instructions to meet at seven, Kakashi made his way to the training grounds to complete his own workout.

He was punching a training post when a cry of "Dynamic Entry!" alerted Kakashi to dodge.

"My Esteemed Rival!" His long-time friend cried, "How Youthful of You to be Training! How are You Enjoying Your Genin Team!" That last part was a question. It must have been, but the way is was voiced made Kakashi think that was open to interpretation.

"Maa," Kakashi pulled out his book, just in case, "its certainly different." He pretended to read as Gai ranted about his team, and eventually the topic of their competitions came up. Kakashi was hiding even further behind his book, when Gai began throwing out contingencies for failing their rapidly approaching contest of skill. Kakashi stilled, then gave his friend a once-over.

"You know…" he began with slight trepidation, shutting his book and slipping it into the kunai holster resting on his lower back, "instead of running 500 laps, there is a favor I'd like from you." Gai froze in place as soon as the words left Kakashi's mouth and studied the silver-haired man seriously before grinning.

"Very Well, My Friend, and if I Win, You Shall Spend Tomorrow Experiencing the Superiority of Green Spandex!"

* * *

The team split up once Kakashi reminded them to meet at seven the next day, and after thinking for a minute Kakashi took off after Naruto. Today he'd seen the same shift in skill and subtle use of Henge as the day before. He caught up at a slight trot, hands in pockets, then slowed so that he was walking casually next to the boy. Naruto obviously noticed right away, but when Kakashi didn't even glance over, he kept quiet, opting instead to shoot his new teacher odd glances from the corner of his eye. After walking for a while they were back in the training grounds and the blonde rounded on him.

"Why are you following me, Huh!?"

"Ahh, sorry about that. I was hoping to chat with you a little bit." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head.

"And you couldn't talk to me _before_?"

"Nope!" the jōnin gave him a smile, "I'll talk with your teammates later, but first I wanted to check something with you."

"Okay then, what'd you want to know?" Naruto squinted up at him. Kakashi had been wondering how to broach the topic, and after struggling over it through most of the D-rank decided to just plunge right in. The blond knucklehead wasn't one for beating around the bush anyway.

"Naruto… what kind of underwear do you have on?"

"W-w-what!? P-pervert! What's it to you!?" Naruto sputtered indignantly.

"I heard from Hokage-sama and your academy teacher Iruka that you're not too fond of your lower anatomy, and I was wondering what you do with it while training."

"WHAT!?"

"Like I said, I heard from Iruka and Sandaime-sama that you like to Henge into a girl and was wond—" Naruto stared on wide-eyed as Kakashi was explaining, pale, until his words seemed to sink in and the blonde cut him off.

"Why are you guys even talking about it, HUH!? That's none of your business! Why do you have t' know!? DON'T TALK ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK!" Naruto exploded before he drew in on himself, "How could Iruka-sensei and Jii-chan just tell you, without warning me or asking me or anything?" The last part was said quietly and more towards himself. Naruto looked at Kakashi with pained eyes and a pinched face.

Before the jōnin had the chance to defend himself or the other adults, the blonde had turned and fled. Kakashi knew he needed to go after him, but had no idea what he would say once he caught up. Maybe he should have approached it differently? Right then he really wanted to go to the Third for advice, but wouldn't that be doing the exact thing that upset Naruto in the first place? Kakashi slowly unfroze from standing with one arm partially extended after the orange genin and his mouth slightly open. With a shunshin he quickly caught up to the distressed prepubescent teen who had reentered the housing district of Konoha.

"Naruto," he began, landing right in front of the blonde. With fences on either side giving nowhere particular to escape, Naruto cast around before giving Kakashi his grudging attention, "I'm sorry for approaching Hokage-sama and Iruka before coming to you. I didn't intend to snoop. As your jōnin sensei I want to be able to support you and help you become the greatest ninja you can be. I give you my word I wont tell anyone without your permission first, and I doubt Hokage-sama or Iruka will either. The only reason they told me is because I'm your jōnin sensei, okay?"

"No! That's not okay! I don't care if you _are _my sensei, it's none of your business!" Kakashi drew back, not expecting his apology to be tossed out so ferociously. He took a moment to gather himself, and to let the blonde do the same. He hadn't thought Naruto would be so hurt simply because of a conversation. They had been working together for two weeks, and since Naruto started using the female Henge at training, he'd thought the blonde was aware he knew, or at least wouldn't mind if the jōnin knew about his body dysphoria. It would seem he'd been mistaken.

"Alright, I understand," Kakashi responded at length, "I overstepped my boundaries, and I apologize for that. In the future I'll come to you directly with any questions. How does that sound?"

"…fine. But I'm not askin' you what you do with your thing though, so you better not be thinkin' I'll let you ask about mine." Hearing him, Kakashi sighed.

"Well I'll tell you what I do with mine," he held his hand up when Naruto opened his mouth to protest. Although he didn't beat the loud cry of 'Pervert!' before it came out, the blonde cooled down once he saw the serious look in Kakashi's eye.

"And I'll also tell you why I'm asking about yours, okay? Just listen to me for a minute, alright?" Kakashi waited for the nod to continue. "First, the reason I'm asking: Girls wear sports bras or kunoichi wrap to bind their chests when training or on a mission. Do you know why?"

"Why? Isn't it to keep pervs like you from staring?"

"Not quite. It's to keep from hurting themselves. As shinobi, we move around a lot running or fighting, and even if our opponents never land a hit we can still wind up hurt if we don't wear the proper clothes. Do you see where I'm going?" One look told him the blonde didn't. Kakashi took a minute to think. Naruto was clearly uncomfortable, and Kakashi couldn't say he was faring much better at the moment.

"…Ah!" the jōnin's eye crinkled in a smile, "you know what whiplash is, right?"

"Where someone knocks you back and your head gets flung around?"

"And you end up with a sore neck, sometimes worse."

"That's right! I remember Kiba once knocked me against the back of a desk and my head snapped to the side so fast me neck felt like I'd burned it!"

"That's the idea," Kakashi smiled along with Naruto's enthusiasm, glad to be back in his comfort zone, "But the thing is, Naruto, your head isn't the only thing that can inadvertently be hurt that way. That's why kunoichi almost always bind their chests."

"To keep their boobs from getting whiplash?"

"…Something like that… so with that idea in mind, can you guess why I'm asking you about your underwear?" Naruto thought for a minute with his hand to his chin before a look of absolute disgust and horror took over his face. Perhaps without noticing he leaned away from the older man:

"You think my THING is going to get whiplash!?"

"Maa, there is the possibility…" Kakashi resisted the urge to fidget. In his head he was cursing himself for ever accepting the position of jōnin sensei.

"I noticed you've been using a Henge recently, but without seeing drastic changes, I was wondering if you were using it to deal with your problem down there," he pointed between Naruto's legs, causing the boy to flush and grab at the crotch of his pants. Without waiting for a response, seeing the answer written on his face, Kakashi continued:

"There's nothing wrong with using a Henge if it doesn't change enough of you to throw off your balance. The danger is if it's dispelled when you take a hit or run low on chakra. When that happens, you need to have the appropriate gear on to continue fighting safely and comfortably. From watching you at practice, I'd say your clothes don't provide for either." The blonde looked down at his shuffling feet and kicked at the ground.

"So I can't Henge for practice anymore?"

"For now I'd prefer if you didn't, but what I have in mind might make you feel more comfortable without it anyway."

"Really?" Kakashi couldn't decide if the kid sounded more hopeful or skeptical.

"Do you know what a shinobi fundoshi is?" when the blonde shook his head Kakashi nodded in understanding, "think of it as the guy version of a sports bra. You'll hear more about it tomorrow with Sasuke, but I wanted to talk with you privately about using Henge first," Naruto gave an embarrassed grin and rubbed the back of his head. Kakashi hesitated, mulling over what he should say next, "it's a beautiful Henge," he decided on, "but you can't always maintain it; at least not yet. So I want Boy-Naruto to be able to fight just as well as Girl-Naruto, okay?"

"Yeah, I get it, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto's face was bright red, "but can I go now? This conversation really sucks."

"Ahh, you can go now. I'll see you tomorrow."

* * *

Kakashi could see the trauma on the rookie genin's faces. After defeating Gai in an unusually intense competition involving standing still on a waterfall, they'd crashed Asuma and Kurenai's date. To explain their plan. Not to see their put out and embarrassed faces at being caught together. The "secret" couple agreed readily enough, most likely trying to get the pair of Konoha's most eccentric jōnin out of their hair. So now Kakashi stood watching six boys get psychologically scarred by the Sublime Green Beast of Konoha's self introduction. A glance to the side showed that Asuma was equally amused at the boy's distress. Sakura had been fortunate that Kurenai volunteered to take the girls for the day to give a kunoichi talk.

"Today, I Have Been Asked to Explain to All of You the Intricacies of Proper Shinobi Dress!" Gai called out jovially. The boys gave his outfit another look before turning to the other jōnin imploringly.

"Indeed, I Can See You Admiring My Youthful Green Spandex, But What We are Here to Discuss Today Goes Beyond Even This in Youthfulness!" Without further ado, Gai proceeded to pull out a green, stringy object. As he held it out a cloth panel attached to part of the looping cords flapped in the breeze. Absolute silence greeted the posing jōnin.

"Isn't that… a thong!?" Kiba asked in horror.

"Close, Kurenai's Youthful Student! This is What You Would Call a Shinobi Fundoshi!" Naruto shot Kakashi a look, which the jōnin refused to meet. Kakashi really didn't want to know whatever Naruto had to say to him. He was embarrassed enough as it was. He lifted his book a little higher. Sasuke was probably trying to burn holes in it with his eyes as well, and Kakashi felt the need for the added barrier.

"As You Can See, This Youthful Undergarment Protects Your Manly—" Asuma covered his next words with a cough, "—and Holds Them Close to the Body! You Will Notice! Despite My Manly Physique and the Definition My Outfit Provides For Leg, Arm, and Abdominal Muscle, Due to Wearing a Shinobi Fundoshi I am Able to Remain a Gentleman Where it Applies to Dress!" Kakashi had a few size jokes he would have liked to make about that, but with the already horrified genin standing right there he decided to hold onto them for another day. Besides, he owed Gai a big one for doing this for him.

"By Properly Wearing the Shinobi Fundoshi, You May Practice High Level Taijutsu and Participate Without Worry in Fast-pace or Physically-oriented Combat," Gai continued, "Now, Allow Me to Explain How to Properly Wear This Youthful Undergarment!" Kakashi did his best to tune out the explanation, but even he was feeling disturbed when Gai decided to demonstrate. At least he didn't take anything off for it.

When all was said and done, Gai handed each of the boys their own pair in various colors. Naruto received an orange fundoshi, and Kakashi couldn't decide if he looked pleased or unsettled. When they turned to leave all of the team seven guys were walking on stilted legs.

"Kakashi," his dark haired duckling glowered, "if you _ever_ make us do something like this again I'm petitioning for a new teacher."

"I think I've learned a new level for sucky conversations," Naruto added. Kakashi didn't have anything to say to that, so he just nodded stiffly.

* * *

**About one percent of readers review this story, and I am extremely grateful to them! To the 99% who have committed to reading this far but not reviewed, I would like to encourage you to leave a message as well! You don't have to say much, but I value your voices and opinions!**

**In this chapter I mentioned something called "kunoichi wrap" used by kinoichi to bind their chests. I ask readers to remember that this is a fictional product in a fictional world, and if any readers wish to bind their chests for performance or personal reasons to research and use safe methods! Using material like Ace bandages to bind is very unhealthy!**

**Shinobi Fundoshi is my idea of a shinobi version of a dance belt.**

**Published:**

**Words: 3,101**


	6. Ocean Swells

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorited thus far!**

****Extra special thanks this week to Nu Hiep, this chapter needed a lot of help and wouldn't have turned out anywhere near as well as it did if it wasn't for them!****

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

* * *

Henge- Underneath the Underneath

Chpater 6: Ocean Swells

Kakashi watched his Ducklings run through their warm-up drills. As he set them to run through their taijutsu kata, he observed proudly how each of them had improved. It took a few days for Naruto to figure out and get comfortable wearing his new shinobi fundoshi, and if Kakashi wasn't mistaken Sasuke also had a slight adjustment period as well, but now they were acclimated and improving faster than ever. He couldn't see any obvious differences with Sakura, but she was keeping up with the boys and that was what mattered most in Kakashi's eyes.

Their mission that afternoon was to help carry bolts of cloth for a boutique that was changing locations to a wealthier neighborhood. He carried a few tucked under his arm while walking along side the kids; skimming through his favorite passages in his book.

"Ugh," Sakura groaned as she dropped her load in the new shop. As they were returning to the old store to receive the next load she piped up, "I never thought there'd be a time I never wanted to step foot in a clothes store again!"

"Hn," Sasuke agreed, "they should have just forgotten about snags or stains and rented a cart."

"I never wanted to go in one in the first place," Naruto added. Hearing this, Sakura snorted:

"Of course _you _wouldn't. Even for a guy you've got no sense of fashion."

"What's that supposed to mean, huh!?" the blonde jumped to the defensive. They were still heading back to the original store, although Naruto was practically doing the grapevine trying to face his teammates and walk at the same time.

"You don't look professional at all," Sakura lectured, "forget about fashion. But I guess it's normal for guys like you not to pay any attention to what you're wearing. It'd be really creepy if you knew shoes designed by Kanazawa compliment camisoles from Yamaguchi's Dresses, you know? That's more girl stuff anyway, but you should at least be able to dress professionally! Sasuke-kun, and even Kakashi-sensei, at least know how to dress appropriately for work." Kakashi wondered why he was an afterthought when he was the one in uniform.

"Yeah, well I'm gonna be Hokage someday! I don't have time to worry about stupid things like fashion! Orange is awesome, so as long as its got Orange in it that's good enough for me!" Despite the declaration, Kakashi could see how tightly Naruto's fists were clenched and decided it was time to intervene. They were almost back at the old shop anyway and it wouldn't do to be fighting when they got there.

"Maa," he waved his hand lacklusterly to get their attention, "I know plenty of women who couldn't care less about fashion, and several men that spend way too much time in front of a mirror. As long as it doesn't hinder your movements or slow you down I don't particularly care what you have on," he smiled encouragingly. It didn't seem like any of the ducklings were paying much attention though. Soon all their arms were again loaded with silk and cotton and they were retracing their steps back to the new location.

* * *

When team seven walked down the hall towards his office to report their completed mission, Hiruzen figured they'd ask for a second. The mission had gone quickly and there was still plenty of time to pick something else up. When he heard Kakashi's familiar drawl slowly making its way down the hall he prepared himself for the loudest of the rookie teams. It was the same every day. First through the door always came Naruto, then Sasuke, followed by Sakura and lastly Kakashi. Then the three kids would stand in a line; Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi would wait a little off to the side or behind them while they received their missions or gave a report. Kakashi worried over team dynamics, but that seemed like a cohesive dynamic to Hiruzen, one just had to look past the surface bickering.

His surprise then was understandable when Sasuke entered first and Kakashi came in between Naruto and Sakura. When the kids lined up, Hiruzen let one eyebrow raise when he saw Sasuke standing in the middle, caught between his two teammates. In his pereferal vision he could see Iruka sending him worried looks.

"Mission: Assist with moving shop merchandise a success, Hokage-sama," the young Uchiha said professionally. Hiruzen had the feeling something must have gone wrong however, for the dynamic to change so much from when the picked up the mission request. He let his eyes slide over them towards the jōnin, who shook his head in clear exasperation. Nothing too serious then, but he'd always known Naruto and Sakura's disputes to be one-sided on Haruno's part. He pulled out the scroll listing all the available D-ranks and that was when things started to go downhill...

Hiruzen was losing. He was losing badly. Slowly his lips twitched into a smile. Naruto had the darndest way of showing his maturity, stubbornly folding his arms across his chest and planting his rear on the ground facing away from his leader in a huff. Neither of his genin teammates seemed to make anything out of it, so this behavior must have been fairly common, but the old Hokage could practically feel the mortification radiating off of the ex-ANBU commander.

"A C-rank, hmm," He cut off Iruka's impromptu lecture and looked at the masked jōnin to see if the kids had his vote of confidence. Receiving a slight nod, he called in the client. When the door slid open the client stepped out. He took one look at the team, tipped up his bottle of sake, and took several long swigs.

"You'll be putting your lives on the line protecting me on my return home and until I complete my bridge. Are you sure these kids are up to the task? Particularly that shortest one with the dumb-looking face," Tazuna drawled drunkenly. It took a moment for Naruto to realize whom he meant, and then Hiruzen was resisting the urge to massage his temples listening to the following explosion. At least Kakashi seemed to be on top of things. _There really is a wide range of maturity in kids Naruto's age_, he mused.

* * *

Walking along the road at a civilian pace with Tazuna was both relaxing and beneficial. Ralaxing because there was no danger expected until they reached Wave in a few day's time, and beneficial because it gave Naruto and Sakura time to move past their first real argument. At least on Naruto's part, that is. Both Kakashi and Naruto knew the blonde could get under Sakura's skin, but Kakashi would bet money this was the first time Sakura had gotten under Naruto's.

There was now a large hole in the armpit of his jacket that was the result of Sakura giving it an unusually strong tug. Kakashi had grabbed his travel sewing kit when he was packing his bag so he'd be able to fix it after they made camp, but that didn't do much for Naruto's cloudy mood, and Sakura had yet to apologize for almost succeeding in her efforts to literally tear the blonde's jacket off. From the long look on her face, it was more out of shame and embarrassment than anything vindictive, but Naruto had no way of knowing that.

After about a half hour of walking Sasuke made his way over to Kakashi and shot him a glare. The jōnin pretended his smile was for the contents of his book, the worn thing gave him so many excuses, and sent silent praises to the antisocial boy.

"Kakashi," the dark haired boy ground out when the jōnin didn't look over, "it's annoying being stuck between Sakura and the sissy."

"Is that so?" He asked when the boy didn't say anything more. He was given another glare, this time accompanied by a huff, and Kakashi decided to throw the boy a bone. He did get his lowest marks on teamwork after all. It was likely the boy was actually lost about what he should do. "What do you want to change?" he prompted.

"Tch. I want them to get over their stupid fight and actually pay attention to the mission," Sasuke pushed his arms farther into his pockets and Kakashi could see from the bulges that his hands were balled into fists.

"Alright then. So what do you want me to do about it?"

"I want you to make them stop fighting."

"Maa, but its so quiet now I can finally enjoy my book..." Sasuke glared even harder and right before he let his anger speak for him, Kakashi decided on how he wanted to give his next prompt so it wouldn't sound too patronizing or instructional, "Maybe I should make everyone switch outfits. Sakura probably wont complain if you're the one wearing orange-"

"No!" Everyone glanced over at where the two had been walking, but when neither said anything they lost interest and returned to their own conversations and sulking. When all was clear Sasuke sent the jōnin yet another glare.

"No? I thought that was a great idea. At least I had one."

"I don't know why I bothered even asking," Sasuke kicked at a pebble in passing, "The sissy just needs to get over himself and his lame jacket."

"Really? That's all? I was thinking Sakura would look just like the future Mrs. Uchiha in your shorts and tee-shirt..."

"No!" this time Sasuke managed to keep his protest to a reasonable hiss, barely. The look on his face was priceless. "She should just get over herself and apologize for tearing the idiots jacket."

"So why don't you go tell her that? Minus the getting over herself part, that is," Kakashi grinned as the boy huffed and moved away. Five minutes later he was next to Sakura and the jōnin's keen ears could hear him saying 'just get it over with and apologize already. Who cares what the sissy's wearing?' and watched as Sakura swallowed and nodded before going over and offering to fix Naruto's jacket for him when they got back to Konoha. Naruto visibly brightened, and then it was as if something clicked and the team was back to its normal dynamic. Sakura started asking Tazuna questions, Naruto was being loud, and Sasuke was practically grinning at the backs of his teammate's heads as he followed along. Kakashi wondered if he was surprised at himself.

Kakashi was thrown for a loop when he noticed a puddle in the middle of the road. He reached out his senses, and sure enough there was more than a little chakra inside it. It was probably concealing someone then. Would they be nuke nin or part of a village? Who were they after? The jōnin sensei prepared himself, and when the attack came he used kawarimi and concealed himself among the branches of a nearby tree.

Kakashi's heart rate spiked. He should have known Naruto would be the next target once he was out of the picture! He'd assumed the unknown ninja would go for Tazuna or Sasuke, but instead they'd gone right for Naruto. And the blonde had frozen. Thank goodness Sasuke was so desensitized and was able to jump in. Why!? Were they after the Kyuubi, or was he merely the weakest link to be gotten rid of? Kakashi's grip on the branch he was concealed on tightened.

One of the demon brothers, he could recall them now, made a break for Tazuna and Kakashi felt his system flood with relief. Not wasting any time, he jumped down and incapacitated the one still facing Naruto before jumping over to get the other. It was all he could do to keep his worry out of his voice.

"Naruto, sorry I didn't help you right away," the jōnin really hadn't anticipated the protective burning in his chest watching the kids fight for the first time, "I let you get hurt. I didn't anticipate you freezing up like that." He needed to hurry and tie up the rogue chunin, but then Sasuke had to go and bait Naruto by calling him a sissy, again. He really needed to get his hands free to take care of Naruto's wound. He didn't know how strong of a poison they used, but considering the village they originated from, Kakashi was worried at the potential lethality. And the knucklehead wouldn't stay still! Sasuke at least should know better.

It took all of Kakashi's training not to maim the drunk architect and tie up the two nuke nin. He carefully modulated his voice as he began drilling the client, but hearing Kakashi, Sakura came in with her own worries.

"Let's just go back," her voice wavered a bit, "we need to hurry and get Naruto to a doctor." Well, Kakashi had hoped to show the kids how to deal with poison on the field then take Tazuna as far as safely possible before dropping the mission or sending the kids back. Returning now would be like leaving after getting bucked off by a horse. Sakura wouldn't be able to get back on; he could see it in her eyes. If they turned back now she would be unable to move forward. He glanced at Sasuke. He would be fine if they returned now, and he knew Naruto wouldn't let the loss obstruct his goals… It would be best to have an iryōnin check that the poison wouldn't do any lasting damage anyway. He could deal with Sakura after. He decided to test how Naruto felt about returning. He was Sakura's excuse after all…

* * *

The soaked jōnin limped over to his ducklings as he explained the role of the hunter ninja and the lack of significance when it came to an opponents age, all the while keeping a weary eye on the hunter. He had a large bounty on his own head as well, after all, and he wasn't in any condition to continue fighting. One it was clear the blonde wouldn't attack, the masked hunter dropped to the ground to collect his bounty before leaping off. Naruto ran to where the shinobi had landed and there his knees crumpled.

Kakashi watched as Naruto pounded his fists into the ground. Seeing death for the first time… He'd performed admirably during the fight against Zabuza, managing to keep his head better than either of his teammates, but Kakashi knew the blonde had always held glorified ideas of shinobi life. Sure, he understood there was death, but not the sudden and easy death the hunder-nin ninja had delivered. Kakashi gave him some time.

Sakura seemed to be handling having witnessed death much better than the jōnin anticipated. She had kept her wits about her enough to recall information on hunter nin and reprimand her teammate, although that could be a sign the death hadn't sunk in yet. Sasuke was… quiet.

"Alright, we need to get Tazuna the rest of the way home," Kakashi instructed. He made to take a step when suddenly it hit him. If someone asked the trigger, Kakashi might say it was the sudden sharp pain from the rock lodged in his shoe, but whatever it was, a jolt went through Kakashi's system and his adrenaline failed him. There was a moment of sudden disconnect from his body where all his feelings, sounds, and smells were muted, where everything took on a washed-out and overly bright sheen. He could feel the sluggishness of his own mind as realization hit him right before the blackness in his peripheral vision leapt forward and Kakashi knew nothing more.

* * *

Kakashi sat under a large tree, crutch propped next to him and book in hand. On his lap was a knapsack Tazuna's daughter Tsunami packed for him full of onigiri to snack on, which he did so gratefully. He could also hear birds singing between the periodic shouts and thuds as his ducklings attempted to experience true flight. At one point when they were all back on the ground Naruto issued one of his regular challenges.

"Hn, there's no way a sissy like you can beat me," Sasuke growled, glare shifting from the tree to his blonde teammate. Kakashi sighed under his breath. Ever since Sasuke figured out comparing Naruto to a girl riled the blonde up, he'd been laying it on thick. The jōnin doubted Sasuke held any actual contempt for girls, he'd just stated acting that way for the reaction. Occasionally Kakashi would reprimand the boy, but he wouldn't always be there and Naruto needed to learn to thicken his skin or stand up for himself. From the reactions, it would probably be the later. The nature of the taunts was also slowly sucking Sakura into the fray, as her female sensibilities could only take so much sexism in a day. It was good to see her taking Naruto's side occasionally, and if Kakashi interfered too much she'd never get to the point of intervening herself.

Sasuke interrupted the blonde's shouts with a smirk, "Come on Princess, I'm getting to that branch before lunch is out." Naruto flushed, before collecting his wits and shouting that he wasn't a princess, he was the hero that rescued them, and took off up his tree. When they crashed again, Kakashi decided to call out:

"You know, I think I've rescued more princes than I have princesses. Many times working alongside Kunoichi."

"Yeah! Take that!" It was Sakura that called out, but Naruto also brightened. The blonde had turned away from his teammates, but Kakashi caught sight of his secret grin before it shifted to his regular loud one and Naruto called out his agreement and charged up his tree with renewed determination. Sakura walked slowly up her's following the boys, and sat on a branch halfway between their higher marks and the ground. "I'll be rescuing princesses before either of you," she bragged, "since I mastered tree walking first! Don't look down on girls!"

* * *

The ninja-girl, Sakura tapped the torn picture hanging on the wall while the ninja-boys finished eating and the teacher-ninja lounged in his chair.

"Why is this photo torn?" She asked innocently enough. So Tazuna began his tale, or rather Kaiza's tale, as well as he knew it. Parts of if, particularly the beginning were second hand, because Inari had fled the room as soon as the girl asked her question and Tsunami chased after him.

"… and saved Inari from drowning. Those two were as close as any blood-related father and son could be, and Inari truly looked up to him. The whole village looked up to him. He lived under the philosophy of protecting those he held dear with his own two arms, and it seemed like there was nothing that man couldn't accomplish… A strong but rugged man who looked every part the hero, and the whole village really did see him as one…"

Tazuna's eyes turned inwards as he continued his tale, seeing the events play out as he had time and again in his sleep. The three young shinobi were all smiling listening to the feats of bravery Inari's hero had performed, but the older one, Kakashi, remained grave, not having forgotten the absence of the man from the house. Tazuna's words grew darker as he described Gato's arrival in the village and Kaiza's defiance.

"…and then he was executed publicly. Since then this town has lost all hope, and Inari has stopped believing in heroes," Tazuna finished his tale. There was a heavy silence, and then the blonde fell out of his chair onto the floor. He slowly pushed himself up on shaky legs.

"Naruto," the teacher-ninja spoke up, "you've built up too much chakra already. You need to rest before you go and train any more."

"I'm gonna prove it…" the squirt panted, "I'm gonna prove that heroes do exist!" He was making his way slowly to the door despite his teammate's protests.

"A pipsqueak like you… what are you hoping to do alone?" Tazuna shot out after taking a long swig of his drink, "You're just a short little brat, scrawny as a girl, what good will an extra few minutes of training do before you collapse, eh? Leave that fight to your teacher," but the blonde was already out the door.

* * *

Haku paused with his hand above the blonde's throat, a few centimeters away from ending his life. Cursing himself internally, he gave the younger boy's shoulder a shake. The conversation after that was dodgy, as Haku struggled internally on weather killing the blonde would do more good or harm. On the one hand, killing him would alert the Konoha ninja and Zabuza-sama wasn't ready for a confrontation. Haku didn't want to admit it, but he also wanted to avoid killing if at all possible. The jōnin would have to be eliminated, but killing a ten-year-old genin surely wouldn't have much of an impact on the overall battle.

The conversation brought forth memories Haku would rather have not dwelt on, despite his alertness to the situation. The blonde just seemed so young, so innocent. He obviously hadn't seen death before Haku made his move with Zabuza, so when he replied earnestly after only a slight hesitation that he already knew people became truly strong when they had someone precious to protect Haku was a bit surprised.

It was time to make his retreat, he had the herbs he needed and the Konoha genin hadn't sowed any signs of suspicion, so Haku decided to say one last thing to distract himself from the upcoming battle with the bright kid:

"By the way," he smiled, imagining the face the animated kid would make, "I'm a guy."

"WHAAAAT!?" Haku hadn't expected so… loud of a reaction, but as he went to walk away the blonde came in again, "Wait! Wait! Is your body wrong to!? Is that why you look like a girl?"

"Is my body… what?" Haku turned back.

"I mean… I mean…" the blonde, Naruto, ran his hands through his hair in frustration, "I mean are you a guy-guy, or are you like me?"

"Am I a what? I don't see what you mean. I am a guy."

"But you're dressed like a girl, see? You even talk like one. Were you supposed to be a girl, then?"

"I… I…" Haku walked over and sat back down next to the blonde. What on earth was he getting at? "Please calm down and explain more clearly what it is you are trying to say." It looked like the blonde was choking on something, and then Haku realized it was on his own words.

"I mean," Naruto's voice dropped down to a hush, as if he were divulging village secrets, "were you born in the wrong body to?"

"…No, I don't believe so," Haku tried to keep it from sounding like a question. What in the world? "You think that because I dress feminine, I must want to be a girl?"

"Don't you? Why else would you dress and act like one?" The blonde's voice returned to normal.

"Dressing like a girl wont turn me into one, the same way as dressing like a guy wont turn someone into a guy. I just do what is comfortable for me."

"But then everyone thinks you're a girl? Doesn't that bother you?" Naruto scrunched his eyes shut.

"I don't really mind being misgendered since I present as a female anyway. I don't have any strong feelings on the matter. I know I'm a guy no matter how I dress or what anyone else says." The only person whose opinion mattered to him was Zabuza-sama's and he couldn't care less what his apprentice wore.

"So you're a guy who likes girl stuff? But doesn't want to be a girl."

"I suppose. Do you want to dress like a girl to?" Haku had not felt so out of his depths since he was chased from his home.

"Hmm," Naruto crossed his arms in thought, "I don't know. I like orange, and according to Sakura-chan girls don't wear orange. And girl clothes are a lot tighter, aren't they? Then everyone would notice when I—" he seemed to catch himself and stopped. "Gah! Maybe sometimes I do." He decided on.

"Well then," Haku smiled, "why not sometimes give it a try. I have to leave now, but perhaps our paths shall cross again. Until then." Haku rose and turned to walk away, this time without interruption. The thought of their next encounter was sobering, and for the first time, Haku noticed the presence behind one of the trees along the clearing. He'd let his guard down trying to understand the blonde's questions. He glanced out of the corner of his eye as the dark haired boy stepped out and they passed each other by. _One of the other genin._ He needed to hurry and alert Zabuza. If he'd recognized Haku's voice… they had less time than he'd initially anticipated.

* * *

Sasuke excused himself to go take a stroll when Naruto didn't show up for breakfast. He was making his way through the forest to the general area he'd seen the dobe training last when he heard it.

"WHAAAAT!? Wait! Wait! Is your body wrong to!? Is that why you look like a girl?" It was undeniably Naruto, although the questions didn't make any sense.

"Is my body… what?" _That voice…_ something in that voice made Sasuke hesitate and move behind the trees. He knew it from somewhere, but who could it be this far from Konoha?

"I mean… I mean… I mean are you a guy-guy, or are you like me?" _Like the dobe? _But Naruto was a guy to… right? He'd seen it himself in the guys' bathroom at the academy. Sasuke crept closer to listen in. Something about the strangers voice put him on edge. He could think on the content of the conversation later, but who was the dobe talking to!? He kept listening, filing what they were saying away to examine later, making certain it didn't have anything to do with the mission or the village.

"…perhaps our paths shall cross again. Until then." Sasuke took this as his cue to step out and begin walking towards the dobe. It wasn't until they were passing each other and the height and body type became apparent that Sasuke realized. He needed to tell Kakashi, but by the looks of things he had a while before the fake hunter-nin would make any move. If he'd wanted to he'd have already killed the dobe as well as Sasuke after all.

"Teme!" Naruto cut through his thoughts, face flushed, "How long have you been there!?"

"Dobe… do you have any idea what time it is? Everyone's already eating."

"I've been training, and that guy that just left said I'll be super strong!"

"Tch, as if a sissy like you could have already mastered tree climbing."

"I'll prove it!" Naruto jumped up, and Sasuke didn't stop him from charging up the nearest tree, didn't stop himself from chasing after when he was taunted either. Falling into their usual routine settled the knot in his stomach from listening to the strange conversation that didn't make any sense. Naruto was still Naruto, then. He'd figure out what the blonde was saying later.

He and the dobe were resting in the branches when Sakura and Kakashi found them. When they were all on the ground he broke the news about the hunter-nin.

"What!? Why didn't you say anything, Teme!?" Naruto's fists went up like they always did when he was feeling defensive.

"Do you think he recognized you or Naruto?" Sakura cut in. Sasuke felt a twinge of frustration.

"Of course they recognized us. We've got our hitai-ate and the same outfits on as before," Sasuke brushed her comment aside.

"Sasuke's right, he would have realized before approaching Naruto that he was a Leaf ninja. What matters here is if he thinks we figured out he was the hunter-nin from before or not," Sasuke nodded. Kakashi's voice when he next spoke was grave, "We should expect the next attempt on Tazuna's life sooner than anticipated. We'll increase the guard starting today. Let's return to the house."

* * *

**My longest Henge chapter yet! I hope it turned out well, so please let me know what you thought of it! **

**Published: April 24, 2014**

**Words: 4,944**


	7. Crashing Waves

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorited thus far!**

**Thank you to Nu Hiep for all their help with this story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

* * *

Henge- Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 7: Crashing Waves

Kakashi wasted no time explaining the situation when the returned to the house. Everyone gathered at the table while Naruto ate a late breakfast. "For today, Sakura, Sasuke and I will go with Tazuna to the bridge and Naruto will get his strength back here. – You're exhausted from spending the night running up and down trees, I can see it," he cut the blonde off when he began to protest.

"What about training?" Sakura asked, glancing between Naruto and Sasuke, "Neither of them have made it all the way to the top yet."

"Training will have to wait. One more day's worth of training wont do as much good as a day of rest at this point."

"But what about you, Kakashi-sensei? You're still using the crutch!"

"Maa, I'll be alright," Kakashi smiled. If it came to a fight, he was banking on Zabuza not being fully recovered either.

"Why, not that I'm ungrateful," Tazuna cut in, "but when I lied about the mission, why didn't you just drop it and go home?" There was a brief pause.

"'To see what is right without doing it bespeaks an absence of courage. Like master, like man.' It's a teaching from the late Hokage," Kakashi explained. There was a stunned silence, broken only when Inari's sniffles and tears grew in volume.

"How… how can you say that!? No matter how hard you work, or what cool-sounding things you say, you're no match for Gato's men! You're all gonna die! The strong will always beat the week in the end!" Inari pushed out of his chair to shout. The air suddenly became tenser. Telling a ninja going off to battle they were going to die wasn't typically well-received. Before Kakashi could cut in, however, Naruto was growling out a response.

"Shut up!" the blonde's voice came out from where it rested on his arms, "I'm not like you."

"You don't know anything! Sticking your nose into our business when you don't know anything! I'm not like you acting all happy without knowing one thing about pain! You're nothing but a shrimpy sissy with cool words!"

"So you're just going to cry all day like the lead in some tragedy? An idiot like you can just cry forever! You crybaby!" Naruto was sitting up glaring.

"Naruto! That's going too far!" Sakura reprimanded, but Naruto just shoved out of his seat and turned towards the door.

"Naruto." Kakashi cut in with no room for disobedience. "We could be attacked as early as this afternoon. Go cool off in the bath then get some rest."

"Tch," but the blonde turned around towards the washroom anyway, "I hate bathes." After that everyone dispersed to finish getting ready for the day, and Kakashi went to have a talk with Inari.

* * *

The bridge was tense that morning. Tazuna informed the workers they would be sent home for the day once they broke for lunch, and seeing the three shinobi who accompanied him today the workers all carried a feeling off unease with them as they completed their work. Several didn't make it that long and ducked out early. Kakashi could see the worry in his students' eyes as they watched the construction. As if to comfort them, Kakashi lounged against the bridge wall with his eye at half-mast. They didn't need to know he was straining his other senses trying to detect any approaching danger.

It was when the fog set in that the screams and cries began. Sakura, and even Sasuke, seemed spooked but had moved with Kakashi to surround Tazuna as soon as they noticed the change. To Kakashi, he knew no one had been killed by the groans and whimpers following each pained shout, and for that the nuke-nin had his gratitude. He couldn't tell his genin though or Zabuza might change his mind simply to regain the scare factor. By the sound of things, though, it was the apprentice doing most of the work.

Before long, their opponents came after Team Seven. Four Mizu Bunshin, under Henge to look like Zabuza, but the chakra didn't lie. Sasuke didn't need much prompting to take care of them, and soon the two students were fighting.

* * *

Inari was pretending not to watch Naruto glare out the window when his mom went to get the door. Naruto was in his tee-shirt and orange pants and had his hitai-ate in one hand like he could say he was resting if he just didn't put it on. There was a big banging noise, and then his mom was lying on the ground holding her head. Inari heard someone laughing from where the banging noise came. He looked to the window, but Naruto wasn't there anymore.

"Please, please, you can take me, just leave Inari out of this!" His mom begged. Two scary looking men came in with loud steps. The first thing Inari saw was that they didn't take off their shoes, then he saw that they both had swords out and were laughing. Inari knew right then that these were Gato's men, and they were going to hurt his mom and him. He had to pee really badly. Where was Naruto!? He saw his mom yelling at them and begging, then she was yelling at him.

She was telling him to run away and Inari really wanted to! But they were going to hurt her, he was sure of it! He was scared, he knew he was scared, 'cause he was weak. And then he was crying. 'Crybaby!' He heard Naruto saying in his head. And he was sitting on the porch listening to Kakashi tell him that Naruto was tired of crying. And he was tired of crying! Suddenly Inari's stomach felt hot, really hot, and his face was starting to feel warm to. The two men weren't looking at him, they were looking at his mom, and then Inari's eyes were on the empty clay teacup in front of him, and then that cup was in his hands and the hotness in his stomach was pushing out, out, out, and the cup was flying-!

The cup hit the man standing closer to Inari on the elbow, and he turned with a mean smile. His mouth was moving, but all Inari could hear was the ocean whooshing in and out of his ears. The man was getting closer to him and someone was yelling. His mom was yelling. And he was yelling! Inari wondered what he was yelling. The man not walking at him was watching, watching, then he was falling. Then the man walking at him was turning, then falling, thumping, and Naruto was looking down-up at Inari from the ceiling and his mom was running over.

"Sorry I'm late!" Naruto was smiling, "but the Hero always arrives just in time to save the day. Thanks to your distraction I was able to get my weapons and save your mom!" Naruto was in his jacket and his hitai-ate was on his forehead. He had a ninja knife in his hand, but then he was tying up the two men, and they were making groaning sounds.

"Hey…" Naruto said, "I'm sorry for calling you a crybaby, you can just forget I said it. I was wrong about you, you know, you're actually really strong." And Inari's chest was feeling hot now, hot and tight, and he was crying.

"Darn it! I promised myself I wouldn't cry anymore! Now you'll call me a crybaby again!"

"It's alright to cry when you're happy!" Naruto said, and then Inari was crying even more.

"I'm sorry to!" he cried, "I'm sorry for calling you weak, and a sissy, and not looking like a hero, and—"

"Not looking like a hero!? When'd you ever say that!? Heroes can look like anything, you know! Not all hero's have supper muscly arms like your dad did, you know!?" Inari thought he was crying, but now he was laughing.

"You don't look like a hero should at all! If a sissy like you can be a hero, then anyone can!"

"Gah! Whatever." Then Naruto was smiling again like he wasn't mad, "Well then I'll leave the rest to you. If Gato sent people here, they're going to need me at the bridge," and Inari nodded.

"You can count on me!"

* * *

It was a contest of speed. Sasuke was able to augment his thanks to his training, but it wouldn't be enough and Kakashi could easily predict the outcome of their fight. If he or Sakura tried to interfere…

"Sakura," He barked, "No matter what happens, maintain your guard on Tazuna!" He decided to take the risk and look back at her, "No matter what, understand? I promise, I won't let my comrades die." He waited for her shaky nod, before he leapt to the side and sent a barrage of shuriken at the nuke-nin. With a concealed grin Kakashi felt rather than saw, the rebel ninja followed after.

He cursed his reduced speed, Kakashi really could have used another day to recover, but Zabuza's pace was slower this time around as well. He leapt in with his kunai, and Zabuza parried with the edge of his oversized blade. When the force grew too much for either to maintain they jumped and let the opposition do the work of sending them back several meters.

Again the retired ANBU moved to the side, keeping his eyes trained on the master of Silent Killing. The rogue jōnin followed after before cutting in on an angle and swiping sideways at Kakashi's spleen. When the Leaf ninja dodged he moved farther out. Watching each other carefully they came in near perfect synchronization to an abrupt halt and sped straight at the other.

Their blades met to hold them in a standstill, and Kakashi utilized the close proximity to make eye contact and cast a suggestive genjutsu on the Mist deserter. He could reinforce it each time they clashed like that, which would be every fifth move, and begin layering on more and more. Five moves later, Kakashi implanted a feeling of worry over the apprentices' fight into Zabuza's head. If he didn't care for the survival of the fake hunter it wouldn't have much of an impact, but going off of Naruto's conversation with the boy earlier that morning, chances were that wasn't be the case.

* * *

Sakura wanted to run towards Sasuke and provide whatever aide she could when she saw the strange mirrors reflecting light through the fog. She wanted to, but all it would take for Zabuza to dash over and slit Tazuna-san's throat would be a moment's distraction for Kakashi-sensei. She couldn't let her guard down; Sasuke was a protégé and could take care of himself. What she needed to do was stay sharp and make sure nothing happened to Tazuna-san. She took a deep breath.

When she focused on her ears Sakura could pinpoint the angle Kakashi-sensei was fighting at through the ringing of colliding blades. Tazuna-san's breath came loud and heavy and dry from behind her, drowning out many other sounds, but Sakura could still clearly hear Sasuke fighting with the fake hunter-nin and the occasional groan from one of the workers farther off. Mayhap they were dying, and she was just standing here with a kunai in hand biding her time. Sakura did not like standing still. The workers were too far away and she couldn't tell how many were alive from the low echoing moans. Beneath all of this was the sound of the ocean rumbling below; foreboding and waiting for the world of the bridge to collapse and be swallowed in the sea.

When Sakura focused on her nose she could smell salt and wetness and brine from the ocean and mist, she could smell the bitter residue from wet stone, accentuated by the dust and dirt of construction. She could smell the briskness of purified water like snowmelt coming with the downdraft from Sasuke's fight, perhaps in relation to the strange mirrors. She could smell the sweat from hours of hard labor and fear wafting off Tazuna behind her. She could smell trees, but worst of all, Sakura could smell blood. At first it had just come from the direction of the workers, small bits of it carried on the mist as if intentionally, but now the metallic scent seemed to surround her. She knew, logically, that this couldn't be true, but the more Sakura focused on her smell, the more the scent of blood seemed to permeate the air. She hated this.

Sakura decided to switch over to what she could feel. She could feel the stone underneath her feet and her dress and hair clinging to her in their wetness. She could feel sweat rolling along her cheek and down the ridge of her spine. She could feel the cold metal at the edges of her grip, and the warm metal curled into her palm where she had held on to her kunai for so long. She could feel cold coming from the direction of Sasuke's fight, adding to her suspicions that the strange mirrors were in fact made of ice, impossible though it may seem. Most reassuring of all though, she could feel heat from Tazuna behind her, assuring her he was alive, and the world hadn't frozen over in a strange, icy hell.

Finally Sakura stretched her senses to try and feel the chakra surrounding her. She'd not really understood how to sense chakra before, but now, separated from her team, she futilely imagined she could feel where the others were. That devil voice of reason in the back of her head whispered the futility of the exercise given the cloak of the chakra-infused mist, but still she tried.

Perhaps because of this she turned instinctually to the left. She could hear steps, smell sweat carried on a breeze she felt running alongside the small grey silhouette she could see. And suddenly Sakura could sense hope building inside her chest as the figure drew closer and the grey cast of their relief melted into orange as Naruto ran up.

* * *

Kakashi and Zabuza leapt apart. This time neither of them ran or initiated any jutsu. Both were panting heavily: this had mostly been a taijutsu battle as they were both still recovering from the stresses their previous encounter placed on their chakra coils. Kakashi could feel blood trickling along his inner arm the warmth from blood soaking into cloth on his thigh. There were numerous nicks and scrapes smattering his person, and Zabuza was faring no better.

"So what happened to that blonde sissy of yours, Kakashi? Chicken out?" Zabuza threw out between heavy breaths. Kakashi could see how twitchy he'd become, how he forced his eyes not to look towards where the kids were fighting. It would seem Zabuza was almost at his breaking point with that genjutsu. Kakashi smiled.

"Naruto? No, he's just resting, but don't worry Sasuke and Sakura will be more than enough to take care of your little fake hunter." It was a lie. It was only a matter of time before Sasuke was overpowered, but Kakashi hoped he'd slow the fake hunter-nin enough for Sakura to take him down. He was worried, but if the laborers were any indication, there was hope Sasuke wouldn't be outright killed. Chances were if Zabuza defeated him he would spare the kids as well.

"Ha! As if they could beat Haku!" But Zabuza was still twitching, "But you might want to drop that orange one, Kakashi, heard he's a first-class sissy. Thought he might have some potential after pulling that stunt in the forest—" _a clear demonstration of Naruto's mastery of_ _Henge_, Kakashi thought "—but a cross-dresser's got no business as a shinobi."

"Maa, he was very inspired after meeting your student…" Kakashi left the statement hanging.

They ran to meet each other again, and their blades hissed and sparked with each collision. They separated and threw out insults and tried to provoke the other while catching their breath, then they were dashing parallel to each other again, tossing out several jutsu.

* * *

Sasuke didn't want to say he was losing, but it would be a lie to say he was winning. He was too slow. Maybe if he'd finished his training…. But no, he didn't have time to think about that now. He was dodging, dodge-dodge-throw-duck-spin-thrust, and the ice user was slowly bleeding him out through the small cuts along his arms, legs, and sides. Sasuke knew he had a few needles lodged into his back, but he didn't have time to contort himself to find them and yank them out.

"Teme!" A voice suddenly trumpeted from just outside the icy dome, "You look like you're losing!" and then the idiot was jumping straight into the dome trap without so much as a second thought.

"Usuratonkachi! Did you even think before you jumped in here!?"

"Teme! As if I'd just stand by while you got your butt kicked!"

"I don't need your help to win!" Which was a lie, but he needed to get Naruto out of the dome. At that point the ice-user grew tired of waiting and launched another slew of senbon at the pair.

"Well you got it anyway!" the idiot retorted when they moved together again.

"Tch, whatever. Like I'd lose to such a sissy fighter," but Sasuke was grateful because he knew he'd been slowly losing.

"Jerk! Who are you calling a sissy, huh!?" Naruto called as they avoided the next barrage of icy needles.

"Both of you!" the dark haired boy snapped back, "you're both sissies so shut up and focus!"

Naruto finally turned his focus on their opponent, but this resulted in him shouting at the many reflections instead of his teammate.

"And you! You're that guy I met in the forest this morning! I helped you pick plants to heal your friend! That was Zabuza, wasn't it!?" The blonde pointed wildly.

"Indeed. You should not be so quick to trust others, Naruto-kun." The atmosphere of the fight shifted dramatically after that. Naruto spent a lot of his time yelling at the fake hunter who fooled him, and Haku – he finally gave his name – spent a lot of time telling his story and how he ended up serving Zabuza.

"Hn," Sasuke threw out when he was getting frustrated. The idiot was practically in tears listening to the fake hunter-nin's story. At this rate he might as well throw the fight! "So that Zabuza taught you that sissy way of fighting? I don't see it." The reflections wavered for the briefest of moments before the Haku in each mirror fixed their gaze on the Uchiha.

"It matters not what you think of my method of fighting. It will be sufficient for defeating you, and if I must kill by heart and become a true shinobi, then so be it." The ice user fixed his gaze on the done next to him, then without a word the next round of dodging and blocking started, punctuated by Naruto's angry and frustrated shouts.

"Perhaps, if we had met under different circumstances, we could have been friends," Haku lamented, having patiently explained his role as the rogue ninja's tool. Sasuke could understand what he was trying to say; he'd heard similar things so many times as a young child, but Naruto refused to accept the reality of shinobi life.

Again the fight resumed suddenly and Sasuke was nearly taken out then and there. He hadn't been paying close enough attention and missed the trigger. There had to be a trick to the fake's mirrors, some trick. All Sasuke had to go off of was the hunch that it was tied in with his speed, but his eyes weren't fast enough to catch anything. He strained harder, and called out for Naruto to assist him when a vague feeling washed over him and Sasuke knew he was catching on. Senbon were flying from all directions, and Naruto wasn't quick enough to dodge, leaving Sasuke to block for him. The dobe then called out a dozen clones, crowding the originals in, and they took the next wave while Sasuke caught his breath and tried to analyze.

"One more time, Sissy! I almost have it!" And as the next wave hit Sasuke could finally see! The ice-user was jumping between mirrors to throw the senbon. If he could just time it right, Sasuke could land a hit!

"Teme... your eyes!" But Sasuke already knew. He'd awakened his Sharingan.

He told the blonde to keep using his Kage Bunshin while he figured out the pattern. Naruto couldn't create clones fast enough, and it left the two open each time he tried, but it gave Sasuke just enough time to catch a glimps of the real Haku darting in between mirrors. But he wasn't fast enough to land the hit! His training… neither he nor Naruto were fairing well, breaths coming harsh and heads pounding, and when the next barrage came, it was all the Uchiha could do to push his teammate to the ground and take the blows himself.

"Sasuke… why…!?"

"Heh, don't know, my body just moved on its own…" Sasuke could feel the ground under him rocking from side to side, "Never thought I'd be done in by a handful of sewing needles..." then blackness fell across his sight and he was weightless for a moment until cold stone pressed comforting against him and he released himself to the cooling embrace.

* * *

He and Zabuza were running parallel when Kakashi felt it; the unmistakable chakra of the Kyūbi. When did Naruto get here, and what had triggered the release? Had the seal broken? No, there wasn't enough chakra for the Fourth's seal to have been released, it was just a portion of the bijū's chakra, but that was more than enough to put both the jōnin on high alert. He needed to finish this quickly. Kakashi turned again to his opponent, but the nuke-nin's attention was where the malevolent energy was coming from.

"What is that chakra!?" The Mist deserter's voice carried on his exhale, "A jinchūriki. One of your kids is a jinchūriki!?" Zabuza dashed for the apprentices, dropping all pretenses of fighting Kakashi. _No!_ Kakashi's eye widened, _the genjutsu I cast? _It must have been the final straw tipping the balance in Zabuza's decision.

Kakashi dashed after him, but his exhaustion slowed his steps. He wouldn't make it. Swiping some blood from the cut on his arm, Kakashi pulled out a scroll and summoned his dogs. "Get Zabuza!" he barked his order, and the canine posy darted out in front of him, overtaking the nuke-nin just within sight of the genin. Kakashi could hear Bull and his other dogs crunching down. He knew from experience the rogue's shoulder was crushed, sword arm dislocated, and legs broken under his summons' teeth.

He went through the handseals slowly and his hand was cased in a light sheen of crackling, chirping lighting. It was vastly underpowered, but for now it would have to be enough. Kakashi charged, thrusting his arm forwards at Zabuza, when a mirror _–ice_— appeared and the apprentice stepped out. It was too late for Kakashi to withdraw the blow, he had too much momentum, but the apprentice seemed to be in better shape than he'd hopped and attempted to redirect the blow. He was partially successful, as Kakashi's arm buried itself deep into the kid's shoulder, but that was enough and the brown-haired boy crumpled to the ground.

"Haku!" Kakashi heard the nuke-nin due only to the close proximity, "Good, job, Haku, you've served your purpose." He clearly meant the last part as a compliment to reassure the boy he'd done all he could have, but suddenly Naruto was yelling and guilting the nuke-nin until he growled for silence. Kakashi realized Naruto thought Haku was dead. Well, with the wound Kakashi gave him, he was as good as. Even if he survived he'd never regain use of his left arm.

The fog cleared as Zabuza released his hold on the technique, there was no point. The outcome of the fight was undeniable. That was when Gato showed up. Later, when Kakashi would sit down to write his report he would have no way to describe what happened. Naruto convinced Zabuza to take out Gato and the goons he'd brought to do his bidding.

"How dare you!" The blonde had shouted, "He looked up to you! All he wanted was for someone to care about him and you just toss him away like some pice of trash!?" He was silenced by a look from the nuke-nin, but then Zabuza turned towards the jōnin.

"Toss me your kunai," the niku-nin growled at Kakashi, "I'll show that piece of dirt what happens to those who cross Momoichi Zabuza!"

Arms limp and kunai crunched between his teeth the Mist deserter cut through swathes of mercenaries until the blade lodged itself into Gato's throat. As he watched, Kakashi felt an unbelievably strong desire to draw his genin into his arms and turn their heads into his chest. There could be no doubt those who fell to Zabuza's blade would not rise. Kakashi wanted to shelter his kids from the scene, from the blood, gore, and death, but they weren't kids, were they. They were soldiers, his soldiers, and they must learn as he did not to turn from death. With a final gurgling spasm one of the wealthiest and influential men of the Elemental Nations left the earth.

Zabuza wouldn't make it out, Kakashi could see that, and now that his opposing mission was rendered moot the silver-haired jōnin decided to jump in, but Naruto beat him to the punch. He created nearly fifty shadow clones, and Kakashi added to that with his own regular illusionary clones for fright. Then the villagers showed up with Inari at the helm, and Kakashi didn't have it in him to be surprised. The now unemployed mercenaries fled, and Zabuza made his way towards where Haku was spread prone across the bridge.

What happened next Kakashi should have been able to predict. One of the villagers, or one of the mercenaries, he didn't check, launched an arrow at Zabuza and it pierced him though the heart. The nuke-nin collapsed beside his apprentice. Despite the ongoing ruckus on the island, the occupants of the bridge fell still and quiet. Zabuza stopped moving after a few shuddering breathes.

"Is… is he dead?" Naruto's voice fell flat. Kakashi slowly approached the pair and rested two fingers across Zabuza's throat. It was cold as ice. _No_, Kakashi corrected himself, _he is ice_. He trained his sharingan eye on the nuke-nin. _A clone. But when?_ He looked at the arrow. It was regular wood, a mercenary or villager must have launched it, but Kakashi could see ice creeping up the shaft, meaning—Kakashi looked to the fallen Haku and saw the same. It must have been when everyone was facing the mercenaries that the boy created a clone and replaced himself, but with only one arm – only one hand – jutsu should have been impossible.

Kakashi withdrew his fingers and stood, studying the pair. It was an obvious trick, there could have been no doubt in Haku's mind Kakashi would deduce what happened. But given the blood loss and pain the wound to his shoulder incurred, the ice-user may not have been thinking straight.

"Kakashi-sensei…?" He heard Sakura's wavering voice. The ex-ANBU allowed himself a moment to decide.

"They faught honorably," he turned to his kids. They may have only met on friendly terms once, but Naruto had felt for the boy. It was cruel of Kakashi, but he wanted Naruto to experience that painful loss which accompanied the death of a friend before he lost someone truly close like Kakashi had. He needed Naruto to understand that morals weren't black and white, and that the enemy wasn't always evil. Those lessons couldn't be learned without the trauma of loss, or if there was hope of conversion. It was when Kakashi turned to study each of his students that he noticed; Sasuke wasn't there.

"Where is Sasuke?" Naruto turned to look at his form, still on the ground as the frozen clones. Sakura ran to him while Naruto started speaking to Kakashi:

"It was all my fault, my fault 'cause I wasn't fast enough. He pushed me out of the way and took the blows for me," Naruto's eyes watered. Kakashi felt a pang in his heart and took a stumbling step to where the dark haired but lay. It couldn't be true-! It wasn't! There, Sasuke moved! And suddenly Kakashi's senses returned and he knew he was seeing the boy's chakra through his Sharingan eye, and Naruto was cheering, and Sakura crying, and stoic Sasuke sitting dazed between them.

This was a good day, the jōnin decided, a very good day.

* * *

**This chapter was a little longer than the others, so let me know what you thought of it!**

**I'm not anything approaching an artist, but I threw together the cover photo using a combination of chalk and paint. Is it a keeper or should it not so subtly disappear never to be seen again? If someone more skilled than myself (anyone in other words) has a picture of their own they'd like to share, let me know!**

**Published: May 8, 2014**

**Words: 5,074**


	8. Ebbing Tides

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorite thus far!**

**A huge thanks goes to Nu Hiep for all their help with this story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

* * *

Henge- Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 8: Ebbing tides

They had a feast that night. Most of the villagers were out celebrating, but for the shinobi and Tazuna's family that day held enough excitement without them adding to it. It was enough to all sit together knowing they were alive and eat Tsunami's homely cooking.

Sasuke was recovering from being turned into a pincushion, and Kakashi wasn't feeling too much better himself. Naruto was slightly rugged from using the Kyūbi's chakra. Sakura was in the best shape of all the members of team seven. Besides feeling emotionally drained she was at full chakra capacity and uninjured. She helped wrap hear teammate's wounds under Kakashi's guidance and had even gone to aide the construction workers who had yet to recover from Zabuza's entrance.

Afterwards Kakashi 'destroyed' the clones of Zabuza and Haku using an old ANBU fire jutsu. He let the villagers take care of the dead mercenaries. His mission was to protect Tazuna, and he didn't want the kids getting any closer to those mangled corpses. He begged them off on account of injury, and the villagers were all too happy to give their new heroes a hard-earned rest.

Inari was practically hanging off Naruto, and the blonde was soaking up the attention like a sponge despite looking on the blink of collapse. They all fell into bed as soon as the meal was finished save for Naruto – who fell asleep in the middle of it with his face buried in his plate – and Tazuna who decided on going out and drinking with his employees was a good idea after all.

The next day everyone slept in late, and as afternoon was approaching Kakashi helped his genin erect a mound overlooking the construction site in memory of Zabuza and Haku. As he listened to Naruto pledge his new Nindo before their supposed graves, Kakashi felt confident in his decision to let the rogue ninja slip away. Sakura and Sasuke stood gravely by as their comrade gave his declaration.

* * *

Sasuke could feel Naruto grinning next to him as they stood shoulder to shoulder, heads tilted back staring at the lines they carved into the two trees several days before with their kunai. His breath came out in a 'humph!' as he held back his anticipatory laugh, but Sasuke knew there was a grin just as wild and fierce as Naruto's stretching across his face. He drew a knife from his kunai pouch, heard a rustle as Naruto did the same, and on an unspoken queue they both threw themselves forwards and raced towards the towering pines.

As he shot upwards, Sasuke felt his chest flood with exhilaration. The fight with Haku had been the tipping point and Sasuke could _feel_ it. His control. There was no doubt in his mind he would make it to the top. He could see orange flashing along side him in his peripheral and knew Naruto was keeping pace. With an extra push Sasuke launched himself faster and faster, but the orange blur stayed with him until the trunk thinned and Sasuke threw himself forward to take hold of the final branch.

Sasuke cast his gaze around in wonder. He'd only seen a view from this high up when he'd climbed the Hokage Mountain on a very rare occasion. For kilometers to his right he could see nothing but trees. Behind him he could see spots of the miniaturized village peaking out, and to his left he could see the Bridge and the fog separating them from the mainland. When Sasuke faced forward he could see Tazuna's house but beyond that stretched the ocean, so much bigger even than it had seemed standing on the shore, spread infinitely out and sparkling in the sun.

Looking at it reminded him of the salty, briny smell of the ocean, and when Sasuke turned to face forward, there was Naruto; panting, grinning, and basking in their shared triumph and view. They stayed there for what must have been at least fifteen minutes; silently enjoying the birds-eye scene and each other's company. As the sun was starting to dip down Sakura strolled up along a nearby tree to call them back for supper. Naruto took off down the tree without a second glance, and Sakura followed shouting something about tracking mud in the house and washing up. Sasuke let himself smile as he leapt down after them.

* * *

Kakashi lounged against the stone edge of the bridge as he watched Naruto pass by on his fifth lap around the structure. The blonde was doing a decent job avoiding the construction workers, but for the life of him Kakashi couldn't deduce the cause for Naruto's sudden drive for increased stamina. He and Sasuke just mastered tree climbing last night, so what could he possibly have come up with between dinner and breakfast? Kakashi was still injured and it was too early in the day for intuitive thought, so as the blonde passed by on his next lap he decided to call out.

"Oi Naruto," all three of his ducklings looked over at the sound of their jōnin leader's voice, "Not that what you are doing isn't great and all, but why are you running circles around the bridge?" The blonde stopped to look at his team sprawled across boxes and unused support beams. If Kakashi had anticipated a lighthearted grin and a declaration of future Hokage-ness, he was sorely mistaken. Naruto's face fell and he walked closer so as he to avoid shouting his reply.

"Y'know when we were fightin' Haku?" Naruto's face was covered by the drawn out morning shadows, "I thought he'd really killed Sasuke there. And it was all my fault because I was too slow and he had to push me out of the way and ended up getting really hurt 'cause of it," Naruto looked up, and there was that familiar glint to his eye reflecting a steel determination, "So I'm gonna get faster so that it never happens again!" The blonde grinned and pumped his fist into the air, but as he was turning to continue the self-imposed training, Kakashi's conscious won the war in his mind. It really was a good thing for Naruto to be running laps but….

"Running long distances is great for your stamina, Naruto, but it trains your slow twitch muscles, not the fast twitch muscles that improve reflexes…."

"WHAT!? Why didn't you tell me earlier, huh!? Gah! All that time I spent running laps and it doesn't d—" Kakashi let out a heavy sigh. Instead of trying to get another word in that jabbering mess, maybe he'd just wait for Naruto to run out of steam before giving tips for reflex training….

"Tch, Dobe. I don't see what you're freaking out over: I told you there was no way I'd be defeated by a sissy fighter." Naruto froze.

"Take that back."

"What?" Kakashi could see Sasuke smirking. He was going to try and rile Naruto up again the best way he knew how, but hadn't developed the social awareness needed to see the line he was about to cross. _That's why they say children are the cruelest of all, _Kakashi mused as Sasuke foolishly continued, "That Haku guy really was a sissy, and Zabuza was the one who trained him right? I can't really picture a hard-hitter like Zabuza training that sissy to dance around and throw needles."

"Shut up!" Naruto lunged forward and grabbed Sasuke by the neck of his shirt. The dark haired boy just grinned widely at the intensity of emotion he was able to invoke in his teammate. "There's nothing wrong with the way Haku fought! He could've killed you! He could've killed you, and me, and Sakura, and who cares how he fought if you're dead, huh!? The ONLY reason he's dead and not you is 'cuase he was a good guy! You owed him your life! Don't you EVER call Haku sissy!" Naruto was shaking Sasuke, and the Uchiha was no longer smirking.

Sasuke had finally noticed that he'd crossed a line and was looking more lost than anything. If Kakashi let things continue however, they boy would probably just grow angry himself and lash out without understanding why Naruto was so upset. Kakashi rose to physically separate the two, but as soon as his fingers brushed up against Naruto's fist, the blonde threw his teammate back and stormed off down the bridge. Kakashi withdrew from the dark-eyed boy, watching to see what would emerge from Sakura's frozen figure.

"That…. That…. Naruto's right you know," She stared at her feet, unmoving, "You really went too far that time, Sasuke-kun. You should know better than anyone not to insult the dead. That wasn't like you at all!" Her head flung up, watery eyes searching her teammate's for remorse, "And you're always going on and on about things being girly, and Naruto being a sissy, but that doesn't make a difference in real life! I beat you! I beat you in mastering tree climbing and that fake hunter-nin beat you in a fight! Quit pretending like you're so much better just because you think you're so macho!" A loud clap accented her final words, and Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura's worlds slowed to untraceable levels as five pink lines slowly darkened across Sasuke's cheek connecting to a large, pink welt forming along his jaw. Slowly, Sakura turned her extended arm to stare at her hand in disbelief. Kakashi only vaguely remembered her moving from her position to Sasuke's side. They boy blinked.

"I'm going to train." Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets and made his way towards shore.

* * *

Sasuke released the chakra he'd been channeling towards his eyes, punching the nearest tree in frustration. First Naruto freaked out on him, then Sakura, _prissy_ _Sakura_ slapped him, and now he couldn't even get his stupid Sharingan to work. He punched the tree again. He could easily admit he shouldn't have insulted a dead person. He felt bad about that, and would probably do something to make it up to the dobe later.

What he DIDN'T get was why Sakura hit him for saying 'sissy'. It was just one of those things people said when someone was being a wimp. He didn't get why it upset Naruto even more than being called 'dobe' because they might have been the same word as far as the intent behind saying them was concerned. Sakura always calls Naruto an idiot, so what was so wrong with Sasuke calling Naruto a sissy?

'_Are you a guy-guy, or are you like me?'_ Naruto's voice echoed in his mind, _'Were you born in the wrong body to?'_ and after Haku's question… _'sometimes I do.'_ Want to dress like a girl. Nothing Naruto said made any sense.

* * *

Kakashi found Sasuke staring blankly at a tree. His eye immediately picked up the raw skin on the boy's knuckles, accentuated as they were by the tightly clenched fists.

"You know, Naruto makes the funniest faces when you ruffle his hair?" Sasuke jumped and spun at the sound of his voice. "I've never seen the expression replicated outside the condition of ruffling his hair."

"Tch, like I care what faces the dobe makes," Sasuke attempted for nonchalance, but with a hand-shaped bruise swelling up his face it didn't quite carry over.

"Oh you don't, do you? Then why bother insulting him? Why not ignore him like you do Sakura? It's amazing how much control a single word gives you over someone, isn't it?" Kakashi drawled, but he was staring the boy down.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Itachi."

Sasuke froze. Kakashi observed as his eyes darkened and his fists trembled from the force exerted in clenching them. When he spoke his voice was barely contained and his eyes were wild.

"Don't you ever say That Man's name in front of me again! I'll kill him! I'll kill him a—"

"Naruto."

"—what!?"

"We were talking about Naruto? Your blond teammate? Fond of ramen and the color orange?" Kakashi waved his hand floppily in front of him.

"I know who he is!"

"Sasuke. How would you feel if from today forward I called you 'Little Brother'?" The jōnin switched topics. When Sasuke started growling he continued, "You'd hate it. And probably me for calling you by it. …I think Naruto feels the same way about being called a 'sissy.'" Sasuke's eyes widened, before closing off.

"It's not the same."

"How is it different?"

"Because his whole family wasn't killed by That Man! That's how! It's just a word! I don't get what the big deal is!" Sasuke exploded on the jōnin, fists flung emphatically to the sides with unspent frustration. He probably wanted to continue, but Kakashi let some of his disapproval boil to the surface and glared the boy down.

"Like 'Little Brother' is just a word? Very few find 'Little Brother' insulting, some even like being called Little Brother. But you don't because you've had bad experiences you associate with it. What makes you think other people are any different, hmm?" Sasuke was still and eventually his eyes dropped away from Kakashi's. The jōnin let up on the pressure he was exerting.

"The fake hunter-nin, Haku, I lied when I said I didn't overhear his conversation with the do-Naruto. It wasn't something that would impact the mission," he added quickly, anticipating Kakashi's ire, "but I still can't make sense of it."

"Do you remember what they said?" If it hinted at what happened to the rogue ninja he'd have to report it. Any future destinations, goals, plans—

"Naruto said he was born in the wrong body and that he's not a 'guy-guy.' What the heck is that supposed to mean? And Naruto _is_ a guy. I saw it when he was showing off his shinobi ID card and in the changing rooms at the academy. Why is he saying—" Kakashi nearly sputtered as his train of thought was derailed. So that was why Sasuke suddenly brought it up. He collected himself while Sasuke was distracted by his own thoughts. "...And in the end he said he wants to dress like a girl," Sasuke concluded, looking at Kakashi for an answer.

"Well, what do you think he meant?"

"If I knew," Sasuke ground out, "why would I bother asking?"

"True, true," Kakashi's eye crinkled happily, "but don't you think you're asking the wrong person?" Sasuke gave him the stink eye, but Kakashi was entirely immune.

"Fine then, I'll just go ask the dobe what's wrong with him," the dark haired boy turned to leave, but Kakashi's hand on his shoulder kept him from getting very far. "What now?" Sasuke turned to glare over his shoulder. Kakashi was really getting tired of this attitude of his.

"It's true you should take your questions to Naruto, but given the way you're probably intending to ask I wouldn't be surprised if he refused to answer. At this point, even if you did ask nicely he probably won't be willing to open up." The pale boy was quiet while he thought about it, and Kakashi took the opportunity to voice his next thought:

"In the end, Naruto is Naruto. As shinobi it's only natural to be curious and want to understand what makes someone tick, but as friends – as teammates –" Kakashi corrected at Sasuke's glare, "—it's important to understand boundaries, and no matter how curious you are Naruto will decide what, when and how much he wants to tell you, and you'll have to respect that decision." Again Sasuke remained silent, although clearly less than thrilled with Kakashi's warning.

"Now, Tsunami-san wanted me to inform you that lunch is on the table and to hurry over before there's none left," Kakashi smiled and jumped away in a poof of smoke. From the branches above he watched Sasuke's face shift from brooding to horror-struck. "He waits 'till _now_ to tell me!?" and with that thought in mind the Uchiha dashed off in the direction of the house. _Growing boys will be growing boys after all_, Kakashi thought with a chuckle as he jumped past his student and made his way to Tazuna's place.

* * *

Kakashi arrived at the house a shortly before Sasuke did, giving the jōnin the opportunity to see everyone's reactions to his face when he walked in. Inari dropped his chopsticks and they clattered onto his plate before the boy burst out laughing. At the same time Naruto's jaw dropped and Tazuna's lips pulled up in a smirk. Sakura's frame crumpled, and Tsunami stepped forward with her hands on her hips, rice paddle in hand from dishing out second helpings.

"I hope you've gained a healthy respect for women now, Sasuke-kun," She waved the paddle at him. Clearly the story had spread, most likely thanks to Tazuna, who looked all too pleased. While the single mother reigned in her son Sakura slowly stood and made her way towards the Uchiha. Fidgeting and still withdrawn into herself, Sakura slowly dragged her eyes up from the floor.

"Erm, Sasuke-kun? I just wanted to apologize for hitting you earlier. I'm sorry, so… will you forgive me?" Sakura eyed the large swollen bruise spanning his left cheek and jawbone before casting her eyes to her feet.

"Hmph. If you always hit Naruto that hard it's no wonder he graduated Dead Last." _But a wonder he's not always covered in black and blue lumps_, Kakashi's mental commentary supplied, _must be the Kyūbi's influence_. For her part, Sakura looked devastated. Apparently she'd missed the sarcasm. It was as close to an apology or acknowledgement that she'd likely get from Sasuke at the moment, and the boy turned to find an open spot at the table. When it became clear that the only available seats were Sakura's vacated one, which she returned to sullenly as he watched, and the one next to Naruto, Sasuke slouched towards his blond teammate. Kakashi watched from his own seat as Naruto got a few angry digs in and the Uchiha bit his tongue. When the blonde took a vicious bite of food Sasuke used the opportunity to make amends.

"Haku may not have been a hard-hitter, but he was skilled. You better pick up your own training Dobe, because there's no way I'll let myself get taken out like that a second time." Naruto's eyes widened before a grin split his face.

"I'm gonna become strong so next time it'll be me saving you Teme, you know!" After that Kakashi felt like the atmosphere has significantly lightened, or maybe it was his mood.

* * *

The team could have returned to Konoha at any given time since the threat to Tazuna's life had been eliminated, but each of his ducklings agreed they wanted to stay until the bridge was completed, even when all their injuries had recovered. Kakashi was finally able to get his two cents in on reflex training and had seen some mild improvement in his ducklings. He was starting to think he should focus more on teaching them evasive measures than new kata until they reached a satisfactory level. After all that had happened on this defunct C-rank the jōnin would readily admit he was feeling rather protective of his ducklings.

Not that a repeat of the current mission was likely in the near future, but given the hotheads he was supposed to control, Kakashi wouldn't be surprised if they picked a fight with an opponent they couldn't soon defeat. He'd exclude Sakura from that, but if the silver-haired jōnin was honest, her fuse was just as short as either boy's. Only lately Sasuke had been a bit quieter keeping a watchful eye on Naruto. It made the blonde's fuse a bit shorter in turn, but at least the Uchiha was letting up a bit on the sissy comments. 'Princess' was still in use, however.

Kakashi turned another page in his book as he hummed in thought. He could debate with himself all day, but then he couldn't enjoy watching his ducklings train. With a smile he increased the downward pressure on his feet and received two grunts in reply. Slowly the two boys pushed themselves back up into plank position before lowering again.

"Faster," Kakashi grinned from his seat atop the stone rail of the bridge. Beside them Pakkun bobbed up and down from atop Sakura's back looking entirely disinterested in the day's proceedings. A few workers smiled as they passed by and Kakashi turned another page in his book. When they reached the target number of push-ups Kakashi lifted his feet and let the boys collapse. They were too out of breath to even bother complaining. Another reason for the jōnin to enjoy intense training sessions. Pakkun ambled over for a treat, and once it was eaten the ninken returned to his perch atop Sakura's back. Turning another page in his book, Kakashi dropped his feet onto the boys' backs and with the command "Again!" they were back to pushing themselves off the ground. After his ducklings finished a third rep Tazuna meandered over to the sweaty genin and their lazy instructor.

"We're going to push an hour or so overtime tonight, and have the bridge officially completed," the old drunk grinned, "Talked about finishing up tomorrow, but the guys all want to go celebrate. You're welcome to join if you'd like," he added for Kakashi. The jōnin smiled politely, and waved the invitation off with a simple "I'll pass," but of course Naruto was quick to jump in with an "I'll be there!" Thankfully Sakura took care of that lecture for him.

"Do you here that team?" Kakashi grinned behind his mask once the bridge builder had left, "we have an extra hour to train!" He received a chorus of groans in response and nodded his head happily. "Mmhm, mmhm, we'll work on stamina while they finish up. See how many laps of the bridge you can do in an hour."

Kakashi slept well that night, and his ducklings slept like the dead. He made sure to cool them down throughly and stretch them out to minimize soreness, but chances were they'd still be feeling it tomorrow. Distantly Kakashi could here loud partying from the construction workers carried over on the wind. The next morning a small party suspiciously absent of the more enthusiastic celebrants sent team seven off on their return to Konoha. Naruto bid Inari a tearful farewell, and they were on the road. Stubborn as always the blonde refused to look back, and neither of his teammates had connected enough with the locals to turn and wave, but Kakashi took a moment to glance behind - he was always glancing behind - at the monolith he'd guarded over the past few weeks. Absently, he wondered what name Tazuna would give it.

* * *

**A shorter chapter this time, but what did people think? I'm also still fishing for artists, if anyone is interested! Anyway, the good the bad and the ugly, let me know what you think in a review!**

**Published: May 22, 2014**

**Words: 4,004**


	9. Making It Up As We Go

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorite thus far!**

**A huge thanks goes to Nu Hiep for all their help with this story and Sasuke's characterization for these next chapters!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

* * *

Henge – Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 9: Making It Up As We Go

Sakura was first to the bridge, as always. With a sigh she settled down to wait for the rest of her team to arrive. She was dead tired, but being early was a habit drilled into her as deeply as brushing her hair in the morning. Some families were just like that, she supposed. It was a few minutes later when Naruto came trotting down the path, just before the official meeting time at seven. She could already see from the bridge that the smaller boy had his hitai-ate around his neck instead of his forehead, so she leaned forward and squinted hoping to get a better look at why. For a moment she thought he was bleeding, but then when he was closer she realized it was makeup.

"Moring Sakura-chan!" Naruto called as he trotted up. Once he was in front of her, Sakura took a moment to study the makeup. Red around the eyes and branching out across the forehead, just like when they took their team picture. Sakura realized she was staring when Naruto chuckled weakly and rubbed the back of his head, face flushed. He opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura was already speaking:

"That's the makeup I helped you with for our team photo. Why are you wearing makeup?"

"It's war paint!" The orange-wearing boy protested before quickly deflating, his cheeks turning bright red. He mumbled something, but all Sakura caught was "Haku." That was the name of the fake hunter-nun, wasn't it? The one Naruto met in the woods.

"You really liked Haku, huh Naruto?" She didn't get how the blonde could become so attached after meeting the older boy just once, but then Naruto's ears and neck turned red to. It couldn't be. No way. Hadn't Naruto liked girls? Haku was a guy.

"Y-yeah," Naruto looked down, losing his blush somewhat, and Sakura felt her eyes widen, "In the end he even said 'if we met under different circumstances we could've been friends' and Haku was really pretty and strong at the same time, and then when I was getting ready this morning I just kinda saw the paint sitting there and, well," He trailed off, and Sakura felt her eyes misting over. And then he'd remembered 'pretty and strong' Haku who could've been his 'friend' under different circumstances. It was just too tragic!

Sakura launched herself at him with a squeal. She didn't even notice when Sasuke arrived precisely at seven.

* * *

Kakashi slowly blinked as the sunlight cleared the topmost leaves of the trees lining the training field and chased away the last of dawn's grey. He should probably go meet with his ducklings right about now. Giving his body a quick stretch he pulled out Icha Icha. Hopefully he could get through a few pages before he started working the kids and by the time he arrived his muscles would be significantly cooled down. Idly he wondered what they would do if he ever showed up on time. Best not. Children were known for having fragile constitutions.

He arrived at the usual bridge to the usual commotion, eyes not leaving his book. Sakura and Naruto sent him the usual "You're late!" and Sasuke was glaring at Naruto from afar and… wait. Sasuke normally glared at _him_ from afar when he arrived late. Kakashi glanced over the top of the book to find the commotion wasn't Sakura beating on Naruto, but rather squeezing the poor boy to death. That was unusual. Almost as unusual as the red makeup the blonde had on. Kakashi let his book lower, holding it loosely at his waist.

"Well you see, I was on my way when…" It was the same 'war paint' Naruto had put on for the team photo. Should he say something? The jōnin wondered idly how Sasuke and Sakura initially reacted to the makeup, but decided against drawing additional attention to the change. Sasuke looked curious enough without his teacher's prompting, and Sakura seemed to have taken it well. Naruto was certainly enjoying her attentions, anyway.

"Alright, run a lap around the grounds to warm up, then come back in for stretches," Kakashi waved them off and took the moment to find a good stopping place in his book. When the kids arrived he tucked it away and settled in to lead stretches. They spent a good twenty minutes stretching then Kakashi began drills. It was the same basic routine from before the wave mission, but with higher intensity. Kakashi could feel the shift in mood once the kids were done warming up and settling into their drills. He'd wondered if the effects of the wave mission would dissipate in the safety of the village, but for now all three approached their training with solemn faces. Given time, the sting from the mission would fade and they would return to their earlier habits, but Kakashi had no intention of allowing that. This was the perfect opportunity for them to adjust their attitudes and there was no way Kakashi would let the opportunity slide.

By the time two hours had passed, all Kakashi's ducklings were sprawled across the grass panting. Bangs were glued to temples with sweat and the ripe scent of preteens permeated the air. _Why does this particular age group have to be so smelly?_ the silver-haired tracker lamented. Naruto's face was covered in pink rivets from where the paint had run and turned the sweaty wisps of baby hair in front of his ears orange.

"You've got fifteen minutes, then we start on teamwork," Kakashi drawled over the edge of his book. His words were met by a chorus of groans, and Kakashi watched, amused, as the kids rolled themselves over and dragged their way to the stream to splash their faces with cool water. It was obvious when Sakura noticed the state of Naruto's makeup by the hooting laughter and broad gesticulations. Apparently they recovered quickly, as otherwise Sakura wouldn't have had the strength to dunk Naruto's head underwater or scrub at his face with her handkerchief. He could hear her lecturing about product qualities as the cowed Naruto re-applied the paint and Sasuke watched just a little too sharply.

Curious about what the results would be, Kakashi ran his team through nearly the same trust exercise he had on their first official practice. Deciding Sakura was the most likely to set a good tone to the activity, the jōnin had each boy tie their hitai-ate over their eyes. It only took a moment to scatter a few dozen shuriken across the training field, then he nodded to the pink haired kunoichi. "Get them to the training posts and back," was the only direction he gave before pulling out his book and settling against a tree to observe.

She was doing a better job of guiding both boys equally, and the boys had both improved in taking direction. Once they made it across and back, Kakashi had Naruto remove his makeshift blindfold and switch places with Sakura. When her sight was satisfactorily blocked, Kakashi cast his eye around for a moment.

"Naruto, guide them to the top of those two trees over there and back down again." And with that they were off. Naruto definitely lacked in leadership skills if the number of bonked heads and painful cries were any hint, but this time he didn't purposefully try and throw Sasuke off. While they worked, Kakashi collected his shuriken and tossed some ninja wire between a handful of saplings. On the far side he placed four bento boxes. Once everyone was on the ground again in relatively one piece, Kakashi called Sasuke for his turn.

"Have them retrieve our lunches," he pointed. Like Naruto, Sasuke lacked in leadership skills. While accurate, his directions were too vague and the boy became frustrated and impatient when his teammates didn't understand. Eventually, they all sat down to tuck into their tossed-salad style bento. They'd only been dropped a half dozen times each.

Half an hour later they were off for a shiny new D-rank mission. For the first time since Yūgao took her photos the kids were looking forward to the low ranked job. The mission itself wasn't anything special; weeding the edge of a training field meant to simulate a desert. When the genin had spread themselves out, Kakashi ambled towards the smallest member. Not bothering with small talk the jōnin squatted down and grabbed the base of the nearest weed's stem:

"You don't normally go through the effort of painting your face. Any special occasion?" The blonde looked at him for a moment before rubbing the back of his head with his dirt-caked fingers.

"Hehe, Sakura asked me the same this this morning. It's just, after meeting Haku…"

"Ah, so its to honor his memory then." Hearing this, Naruto's face scrunched up and the blonde hummed for a minute while he decided on what he wanted to say.

"Haku dressed like a girl, but he didn't wear any makeup," Naruto poked at a weed. After a few moments he gripped the plant and yanked it violently from the ground. In a hushed voice he asked: "Kakashi-sensei, can you keep a secret?"

"Sure, Naruto, what is it?" the jōnin watched as his student shook the dirt from the roots and knocked the plant against the ground to disperse the more stubborn clumps.

"It's just, I've been wanting to try it out for a while, y'know? Back before the Wave mission. And when I met Haku I thought he was a girl and he was _so cool_, and he wore girls clothes all the time and was super strong and said why don't I try it sometime and—" The poor weed's stem had turned an awful puce green as Naruto twisted and pulled until it was bruised beyond recovery and drooped from the boy's fingers like a boiled ramen noodle, "—and so I just kinda did," he finished with a helpless wave of his hands.

"Well," Kakashi smiled, "it looks good." The masked jōnin stood up and ambled towards Sakura to give his next duckling a hand, not waiting to see the blonde's reaction.

They were done after an hour or so and Kakashi dismissed the genin for the day. Before Naruto could even initiate his pre-Wave routine of asking Sakura out, the girl had grabbed his arm and was tugging him towards the market center.

"Your face will break out if you put just any old paint on it! If you're going to wear makeup, you've got to actually use _makeup_," Kakashi could here Sakura clearly despite the rapid increase in distance. He could also here Naruto's protests, although they were rather empty. Kakashi let his eye slide to the side, where Sasuke's feet remained planted where they were with an equally stuck scowl on his face.

"You could always join them…" the jōnin ventured, but hearing him the dark haired boy just gave a huff.

"Like I care what they do."

"Well if you insist…" but the raven's protest sounded even less convincing than Naruto's.

* * *

Hiruzen had been concerned when the report came in that Kakashi's supposed C-rank had involved several A-rank jōnin battles with the infamous Demon missing-nin of Kirigakure. Granted he knew it ended well enough given the team's safe return, but even in wartime the genin weren't exposed to that kind of fight or that amount of death so early. They were meant to scare off a few street punks for a drunk architect, not watch the massacre of a platoon of mercenaries! Kakashi had also decided to let the rogue ninja slip away as quietly as possible, and if the jōnin's report was as accurate as always Naruto had formed a bond with the unaffiliated ice-user, meaning to some extent the child was also experiencing a personal loss.

He'd seen the team briefly when they reported in, but had been distracted by the gravity of the mission itself and the potential repercussions. Now, as he watched the team file into the mission room, Hiruzen could spot several distinct changes, the greatest of which were reflected in the blonde he'd been so worried over.

It was hidden well for a genin, behind a loud grin and boisterous voice, but the first thing that Hiruzen noticed was that Naruto was anxious. Before he could even wonder why blue eyes flickered in his direction and the Old Hokage caught sight of red makeup – or was that supposed to be battle paint? – dramatically lining the blonde's eyelids and forehead. Before he could comment, Naruto had shoved the nervous gesture to the side and bounded forward with a cheerful call:

"Hey Jiji! You're handing out missions today!?" Hiruzen smiled. Perhaps Naruto was doing better than he'd thought.

"Indeed I am. You're looking well," and there, the blonde's shoulders sank minutely as the tension holding them up bled out, "I trust you've adjusted to being back home?" And then came Naruto's spirited reply followed by his teammates violent correction and Kakashi's exasperated silence as he'd long given up on policing the familiar outbursts. Hiruzen felt a thrill shoot through him. Naruto, who had blamed years of maltreatment on gender related feelings, who not that long ago hid behind a door and refused to come out, petrified by the thought of rejection, pushing the boundaries of recognizable 'battle paint.'

It wasn't his doing, but Hiruzen was proud. He'd have to find the time to catch up with Naruto sometime soon.

As quickly as it came, the feeling fled. Naruto was right to be weary. Hidden villages held perhaps the greatest capacity for eccentric individuals, but that didn't necessarily mean it had an 'anything goes' mentality. As a jinchūriki, Naruto knew this well. He would have to meet with the child again soon.

* * *

The next morning Kakashi found Sakura huddled together with Naruto around a compact mirror chatting away. Assorted brushes and powders were scattered around them on the ground and on a carefully laid out handkerchief. Sakura's enthusiasm was palpable, and although Naruto seemed much more hesitant than normal, the blonde was also smiling genuinely and carrying his part of the conversation. Sasuke was seated apart from his teammates showing them his back rather than the scowl on his face.

Kakashi worked the genin to the brink of collapse, only to grant them a short break before switching to focus on teamwork. Despite the amount of sweat pouring off each of them, there was no running makeup. Naruto's 'war paint' was as dramatic as ever, but Kakashi had also noticed a thin red lining along Sakura's upper eyelid as well. Once the kids rolled over and got a drink of water, Sakura pulled her compact out again to show her blonde teammate the effectiveness of the new product.

Several times Sasuke made as if to say something, but each time his face would close off and he would turn away. Eventually Kakashi had enough and walked over with his book held firmly in place before him.

"You don't have to wear makeup to talk to them, you do realize, don't you?"

"I'm not interested in what those two idiots do in their free time, so long as it doesn't interfere with my ambition."

"You seem pretty interested to me," the jōnin hummed, watching the Uchiha from the corner of his eye.

"It's a passing curiosity," Sasuke crossed his arms defensively over his chest, "There's no reason for me to care."

The mission they took that afternoon wasn't strenuous, but it lasted well past dinner. The customer, a shot-handed restaurant owner, fed them each a late dinner; then the jōnin let the ducklings drag themselves back home for a shower and sleep. Even Kakashi was weary after a double shift waiting tables. Sakura had given up complaining of sore feet half an hour before closing, and swore up and down she would never be a waitress. Having been deemed lacking in skills pertaining to customer service, Sasuke and Naruto were kept in the back, preparing drinks and washing dishes, respectively. The restaurant owner shot Naruto a look when they first walked in, but weather that was due to the makeup or being a jinchūriki, Kakashi couldn't tell.

Kakashi ran through the second half of his daily workout on autopilot, then moseyed home for a shower and some rest.

* * *

The next morning Kakashi approached the bridge from the trees. As had been the norm since the mission to Wave, Naruto and Sakura were huddled together and Sasuke remained a ways off. The jōnin was a good half hour earlier than usual and settled onto the branch of his tree with Icha Icha in front of him.

"It's fine to put on a thin coat because we'll put another one on after that. If you just dab a ton on all at once it'll chip off sooner and wont look as good."

"Oh. Okay, I guess." The voices of his more colorful ducklings drifted over to Kakashi.

"The third coat will be a clear one, just to finish it off. We should have just enough time for everything to dry before Kakashi-sensei shows up."

"Hey, hey! Next time d'you think you could paint a spiral on one of my fingers!? I don't need some lame flower—"

"—Hey!"

"—but a spiral would be epic!"

"Flowers aren't lame, baka! See! Just look at this one! It's really cute, isn't it?" Kakashi glanced over idly as Sakura bonked the blonde on the head.

"It's cute on _you_, but I don't want it on _me_, y'know?" Kakashi could hear the pout in his voice.

"Hmm, I guess that's true. Once this wears off I'll show you how to make a spiral. You should paint it on your ring finger like I did with my flower."

"Why does it have t'be the ring finger?"

"Its all about aesthetics…." At which point Kakashi stopped listening in. He had a solid half hour before he needed to do anything with his ducklings, and dropping down earlier would just be cruel at this point. He could teach them to always be on guard another day.

Kakashi waited a few minutes after Sakura declared Naruto and her nails dry before looping back through the trees to approach from the ground. When spotted, both Sakura and Naruto greeted him with cries of 'You're late!' and Kakashi decided to go with the old lady excuse. Predictably, Sakura's nails were coated in a shiny layer of pink, and a crude flower was painted in the corner each of her ring fingers. A bit more surprising was the bright orange on Naruto's. He hadn't expected Sakura to allow the color, let alone posses a bottle of it, but it was just so typically _Naruto_ that he had to smile. The jōnin wondered how early they started, because each sported the same makeup as before on top of their painted nails. "…laps around the field, then come in for stretches," Kakashi concluded his spiel, waving the preteens off.

Group training that day proved to be a bit more of a challenge. The jōnin had introduced a new formation, and the genin were getting frustrated. Sasuke and Sakura were able to pick it up right away, Sasuke after seeing Kakashi demonstrate with clones and Sakura after he gave a verbal breakdown of the formation and sketched a few diagrams on a blank scroll. Naruto, however, needed to run it repeatedly until it clicked, then a dozen times more until it stuck. There was nothing wrong with that type of learning, but his teammates couldn't relate to it and as usual were getting frustrated with the blonde.

"You come in _after_ Sakura pulls back, not before! Oi siss—Dobe! Are you even trying!?" Sasuke shouted at his teammate's back. Naruto kicked the ground in frustration, but otherwise refused to respond. Kakashi noted that the dark haired boy's lower lip rippled in a way that suggested he was biting the inside of it. He'd been doing a good job of avoiding sexist insults, but they'd made the backbone of his and Naruto's interactions for as long as they'd been a team. Without that, the Uchiha was left floundering, adding discomfort to an already aggravating situation.

"Maa," Kakashi decided an intervention was in order, "it's getting better. A few more tries and you'll have it. After that we'll break for lunch," _I think you need it. Hungry kids are a pain to deal with._

"Tch, whatever. Just get in position!" Naruto and Sakura trudged to their respective posts and settled into place to repeat the exercise.

The mission that day was walking a group of pet dogs. Naruto, being Naruto, insisted on taking the largest dogs. Perhaps he'd thought successfully walking them would be impressive or defeat Sasuke in some way, but hadn't noticed or paid attention to the dog's age. The largest was clearly old, and decided after about ten minutes of walking that he was done and settled down in the middle of the street. Being twice Naruto's size, no amount of tugging or shouting on the blonde's part could get the large animal to budge.

"Si—Dobe! Hurry up or we're leaving without you!" The Uchiha called back, biting the inside of his lower lip and causing his face to scowl. After a moment his mouth smoothed into his regular scowl. He'd probably end up biting his lip the next time he tried to eat, given how much it had probably swollen out already. Kakashi had caught him flinching a few times eating around Tsunami's table in Wave as well.

"I'm c-coming!" Naruto grunted from beside the large canine. Standing next to the jōnin, Sakura gave a sigh. The dog did not want to move. After another minute of Naruto wrangling with the old animal, Kakashi called it over. He'd practically been raised with dogs, and even dumb civilian pets were no match for him. Once Naruto drew level with the rest of Team Seven Sasuke sent him a smirk.

"Can't even handle one old dog, Dobe?" The blonde predictably shouted a retort, but the reaction wasn't as strong as when he was called a sissy and Sasuke quickly lost interest in trying to rile him up. Kakashi watched him slowly deflate before turning away. The rookie genin was making a consistent effort to switch insults despite the obvious discomfort, but Sasuke was still watching Naruto closely, so Kakashi doubted the Uchiha's motives were entirely innocent. After nearly two hours the mission was completed and they returned to Hokage Tower to report their success.

It was on the way back out after receiving pay that they ran into trouble. Kurenai's team was just coming in from their mission and the Inuzuka boy sniffed his team out.

"Kakashi!" The jōnin turned to see his peer waving amicably in his direction, "we were just on our way to hand in a mission receipt and file our report," the genjutsu specialist stopped in front of his team.

"Ahh, we just finished handing in ours," Kakashi waved behind him where his ducklings were standing in a line. Sakura was looking around him curiously, but it was Naruto's awestruck face that surprised the silver haired shinobi.

"What the heck, Naruto? You look like a girl!" Kurenai's genin, the Inuzuka, finally noticed Kakashi's team.

"Shut up Dog Breath!" Naruto's attention snapped from Kurenai to his year-mate.

"What, are you turning into a sissy now!? I haven't seen you since graduation and now you turn up all dolled out!?"

"K-kiba-kun!"

"It's War Paint—"

"Look! You've even painted you nails! What the heck, Naruto? Not even Hinata paints her nails," Kiba's dog barked in what could only be taken as agreement, "You look like a clown!"

SMACK!

"Anoying." Sasuke tossed two more pebbles in his hand as he stared down the Inuzuka, who was now sporting a thimble-sized bruise on his nose just under his hitai-ate. Naruto watched wide-eyed as his teammates stepped up to come between him and the feral boy.

"Shut up, Kiba," Sakura cracked her knuckles, "you're wearing just as much makeup as he is!"

"They're clan markings!"

"I don't care! Don't pick on Naruto! And don't call him a sissy!"

"Hn, Sakura's right. The only one who gets to insult the dobe is me." Kakashi didn't really know how to respond to that one. In his peripheral he could see Naruto was staring at Sasuke with his mouth hanging open.

"Kiba-kun." Kurenai apparently knew how to respond though. "You shouldn't insult your comrades. Naruto-kun can dress however he likes, and you need to respect that," Kurenai's eye took on a frightening glint, "or should I send you back to Gai for more lessons on just what a shinobi can wear?" The boy gulped, and his eyes darted around as if expecting said Green Beast to suddenly appear before returning to the blonde.

"Sorry, man. It's not really that bad. Just different. Yeah." His puppy whined in agreement.

"…It's cool," Naruto eventually acquiesced, before a grin split his face, "I'd still beat you in a fight!"

"Pft, as if I'd lose to a dead-last like you!"

"I could beat you any day! Bring it!"

"I'd like to see you try—" the boys lunged for each other, leaving their respective instructors to pry them apart.

"Alright, time to go turn in that mission report," Kurenai huffed as she pulled Kiba away.

"I-I don't mind your war-paint N-naruto-kun," the small Hyūga offered. It was as she began trailing after the rest of her team that Kakashi noticed there was a fourth member. Had he said something during the exchange? He couldn't remember. The boy seemed to be the type that was easily overlooked.

Once team seven was alone again Naruto's hesitant voice broke the silence:

"Hey, does it really look that weird? Do I look really stupid?" He grabbed at his jacket and bit his lip.

"Dobe," the Uchiha scoffed, "since when do you let that dog get to you?"

"Sasuke-kun's right," Sakura piped up, "What does Kiba know about fashion anyway? I wouldn't let you walk around the village with a bad makeup job, it's my pride as a woman, so don't listen to him." Naruto gave a watery smile and rubbed the back of his head.

"Thanks guys." For a moment Kakashi's memory of the bell test flashed through his mind. Sasuke gruffly extending the olive branch and Sakura backing him up. _Have their bonds deepened since then? _Kakashi had never counted himself a good judge of relationships, but watching his ducklings stick up for one another brought a genuine smile to the veteran's face. Somehow they all ended up at Ichiraku's for dinner, but Kakashi wasn't complaining. His brats were smiling and laughing, and even if Sasuke was still distanced from his teammates he'd given himself a break for the night from studying the blonde and let himself smile at their backs again.

* * *

**Please leave a review on your way out!**

**I don't know if I ever said this, but I update Henge on Thursdays, typically every other week. **

**Published: June 5, 2014**

**Words: 4,739**


	10. Misconceptions and Directions

**I'm sorry for the long hiatus. I lost a family member and, well. I hope this long intermission hasn't caused interest to wane too strongly.**

* * *

_"The current of the flowing river does not cease, and yet the water is not the same as before. The foam that floats on stagnant pools, now vanishing, now forming, never stays the same for long. So, too, it is with the people and dwellings of the world."_

\- Kamo no Chōmei, 1212 CE

* * *

Henge – Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 10: Misconceptions and Directions

When Kakashi arrived to meet with his team he found Sakura between both Naruto and Sasuke, chatting with the blonde and attempting to flirt with the Uchiha. He'd thought she'd moved passed that, but since Sasuke had stood up for Naruto and gone out for dinner with the team she'd apparently decided to renew her efforts to snag him. Kakashi couldn't decide if the boy seemed more frustrated at her antics or happy to be included. With a smile the jōnin sent them running.

Nothing in training warranted great interest, and after lunch the silver-haired man ushered his charges to the mission room. After the late mission at the diner, Kakashi decided on a shorter project. Catching the noble cat Tora, beloved pet of the Fire Daimyō's wife. It gave a great opportunity for the genin to sharpen ninja skills and practice using short-wave radios for communication. It was a good day for it to; sunny with just a few clouds. The three were still a bit rough around the edges by way of teamwork, but overall tracking Tora was met with greater success than walking dogs. They returned the cat to Lady Shijimi and after listening to the hokage extend an invitation to spend time together with Naruto, team seven exited the tower without incident.

Somewhat lost as to what to do with the extra time, Kakashi lagged behind his ducklings rather than jumping off as he tried to decide if he should do the second half of his daily doubles first or get his shopping done. On the one hand, he was already close to the market and doing his shopping now would mean he would have things to cook with after training when his stomach would be empty. On the other hand, it was a beautiful day out and it would be a shame to waste even an hour of it. Perhaps he could make a clone and hand his wallet to them and-

"WHAT!?" Kakashi's train of though was derailed by the loud voice of his pinkest duckling. Looking over the top of his book, he saw her a good fifty meters off with Naruto. Sasuke had apparently left, but Kakashi filed that thought to the back of his mind as he picked up his pace to reach the two preteens. Naruto was saying something with a confused look on his face, most likely responding to Sakura's cry, and the other villagers along the path were giving the two more room and unfortunately more attention.

"I thought you liked Haku!?" Her voice had quieted a bit, and now that Kakashi was closer he could also hear Naruto's reply:

"Not like _that_! Haku's a _guy_!" Not that he needed to be near to catch that…

"Exactly!"

"Sakura-chan I don't get it," Naruto tried placating, clearly lost as to why his teammate was acting strangely, "I like girls." There was a moment of silence while Sakura seemed to reboot her train of thought and Kakashi closed the distance while glaring away any nosy eavesdroppers.

"So… you didn't like Haku that way?" the kunoichi asked with a confused look on her face. Naruto's face however cleared up as if a light had been flipped in his brain.

"I've always liked you, Sakura-chan! There's no other girl for me! And definitely no guy! Believe it!" Naruto grinned and even gave her a thumbs up. An orange-and-shiny polished-nail thumbs up which Kakashi could see Sakura's eyes lock in on. Naruto was grinning at her as if all had been made right in the world, and Kakashi felt his stomach sink with the suspicion of what was happening, and more importantly what was about to happen. He released a wave of intent powerful enough to send the remaining people on the streets scattering. Not that his ducklings noticed.

"Then-! Then what about the makeup and the nail polish!? We went shopping together!" Sakura gasped, having reached her own conclusion, "You were just trying to get close to me! You probably thought we were on some kind of date or something to!" Kakashi watched as Naruto's face crumpled under his crush's rage.

"But I really do like painting my nails and stuff!?" He couldn't tell if the boy looked more confused or wounded. Perhaps it was time to intervene, but what was he supposed to say? Preteen romance counseling was not in the shinobi job description…

"Ew!" Sakura pulled back, "That's so gross!" Naruto stepped back as if burned and Kakashi decided it was past time to step in.

"Ahh, fancy running into you here," he attempted to diffuse the situation. They both spun to face him with wide eyes, "I was just on my way to buy groceries and could use a few extra hands." The two gaped at him for a few seconds, and then Sakura was the first to regain her composure.

"I'm not going anywhere with that pervert!" She declared before spinning on her heel. She took a step away before deciding she had one last thing to say, and turning to face Naruto, flung out her parting words like a slap to the face:

"What kind of straight guy paints his nails anyway!? I bet you steel girls panties to!" and with that she left. Kakashi turned to his remaining student, who looked to be held together by a thread.

"I—I haf'ta go," He could see the tremors shaking Naruto's frame and the tears in his eyes before the blond-haired boy dashed away. With a sigh Kakashi tilted his head back and looked up. A few puffy white clouds were blowing lazily overhead.

* * *

Kakashi found Naruto sitting on the top of the Hokage Monument nestled in the spikes of Minato-sensei's hair. He lowered himself next to the boy, but let his gaze fall on the village below. Still having not figured out what to say, he raked a hand through his wirily hair and huffed in frustration. He was saved from his indecision by a mumbled voice.

"Is it that gross?" Naruto kept his eyes trained on the buildings and streets below, "liking nail polish and makeup and stuff? She didn't care before, so why's she calling me a perv now? I don't get it. Jii-chan said the reason people don't like me is 'cause of the fox. Not—not that."

"…Its not so much your interest in girl things that shocked her I think as your interest in girls themselves," Kakashi tried to explain.

"But I've always liked girls?"

"Ahh…" maybe a different approach. "I believe Sakura was under the impression you had a crush on Haku. Your interest in girl things fit into her image of you liking guys, so she was surprised when you said you actually liked girls."

"…Huh?" Naruto gave him a squinty, confused look. Kakashi took a minute to think about what direction to take the conversation in.

"You never properly told Sakura why you are interested in girl things or how you feel. So she came to her own conclusions. Sakura decided you like nail polish and makeup because you're gay."

"I'm not gay!" The blonde exploded.

"But Sakura thought you were," Kakashi looked up to where Naruto had jumped to his feet, "and she felt betrayed when she found out you weren't."

"But that doesn't make sense! I never said I was gay!?"

"I know, and she shouldn't have reacted like that. She jumped to conclusions, then got mad at you when they were wrong. And Naruto? Most people out there will probably make the same mistake. People are a lot more likely to question your sexuality then you gender."

Naruto thought on that for a minute before plopping back down and aggressively ruffling his hair. Kakashi let his hand fall onto the top of Naruto's head.

"I can't shelter you from all the misconceptions and stereotyping other's will force onto you, but I will always support you. I'll talk with Sakura about her behavior. Knowing her, she probably already feels bad about the things she said anyway. You're her precious teammate, after all," Naruto's head bobbed up and down under his hand in consent, "something for you to think about would be opening up to her and Sasuke a bit more about how you feel. Give them a hand in understanding you better. Although it may not seem like it at the moment, I believe they will both stand by you no matter what." Naruto didn't have anything to say to that, and they fell into a comfortable silence. As he looked out over the village and the forest beyond, Kakashi supposed it was a good way to spend his afternoon.

* * *

Hiruzen was concluding a briefing with one of the village's many chūnin squads when he heard the tell tale sounds of his grandson and friends assembling a trap outside his office. With a bit of amusement he decided against cuing in the oblivious chūnin. It wasn't likely, but maybe Konohamaru would get one of them this time. With a twitch of the lip the Third thanked the squad for their work; "…and let Akiko know to have the dorms checked one last time and to have the chef begin cooking. It's about to get rather busy." Though it had become rather quiet on the other side of his door.

The squad gave a final, unified salute before turning to file out the door. There was a clang, a ssssishh, and a _splat_ followed by a moment of frozen silence. Hiruzen heard a muffled giggle, then a not so muffled "Shh!" which seemed to break the spell holding his chūnin captive at the office door. It came as a bit of a surprise when the angry squad captain roared "NARUTOOO!" but deflating a bit, the Professor reminded himself that it was still a bit early for Konohamaru and his friends to catch chūnin without aid.

Konohamaru was the first to dash past the gooey pink chūnin, followed by Moegi, Udon, and finally Naruto. Running until they were all safely behind him, his grandson puffed up his chest.

"Ha!" The boy pointed at the red-faced chūnin, "My Boss is the greatest ninja ever!" The Third ignored the following argument between the professional assassin and his nine-year-old grandson in favor of turning to the orange-clad genin in their midst.

"Naruto, I didn't expect you to take up my offer so soon. I haven't even left my desk yet." He meant it as more of a joke, considering Naruto's company, but the genin's face turned sober at his question.

"Iruka-sensei's teaching," the blonde said by way of explanation.

"And Kakashi?" Naruto shuffled from foot to foot, looking away. So something happened, then. "Alright," Hiruzen turned his attention to the sputtering chūnin, "let Akiko know to send the janitor up next before any dignitaries," the chūnin flushed, but did as directed, "Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, I'll have you know the only reason you wont be cleaning this mess up yourselves is because you've got lessons you should be attending. Return to class. I trust Iruka will punish you adequately."

"But I want to play ninja with the Boss!"

"Ahh, Next time, Konohamaru. Promise. Me an' the Old Man got something to talk about." Naruto rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. Konohamaru, ignorant to Naruto's discomfort cheered and lead his posy out towards the academy and an already forgotten punishment. Once the door shut Sarutobi turned to the child standing next to his chair.

"Now what's this that happened so you can't talk with Kakashi?" He questioned, tone gentle. Naruto fidgeted for a bit without saying anything, and not looking like he would start saying anything in the near future, the Sandaime tried prompting; "why don't you start from when you left my office earlier."

"…We left," Naruto finally offered, "An' I asked Sakura-chan out, an' she got mad an' ran away. Kakashi-sensei said she thought I was—" Naruto's cheeks turned pink, but after a moment he pushed forward, "—I was gay, 'cause I like nail polish and stuff, and that I should tell her and Sasuke that—that—" one of Naruto's hands dropped to grab at the seat crease between pant legs.

"—And you don't want to," Hiruzen supplied. Naruto shuffled his feet in response.

"Perhaps," the aged leader mused, "you can practice on me. See what you feel comfortable saying, like how you tested out that Henge the night you graduated."

"But I don't know what to say."

"Then just say whatever," Hiruzen pulled Naruto into a rare hug, "there's no rush and I won't judge." He sat like that with his arm around Naruto; listening to the child stutter and stumble over feelings and explanations.

"I like nail polish," Naruto had started at a whisper, "and makeup. Not—not war paint but makeup," the blonde looked down in embarrassment, "I was really happy when Sakura-chan took me shopping with her, even though it wasn't a date." Hiruzen nodded along. "And I like that Kakashi-sensei lets me use my Henge sometimes on missions, even though he wont let me train with it."

"Do you use your Henge outside of missions?" he probed gently.

"Sometimes," Naruto mumbled in response, "I like bein' a girl."

"If you could, would you like being a girl all the time?"

* * *

Kakashi found Sakura the first place he looked. All it took was a quick rasp on the front door of her family's home, a shout from her father, and they were off on a walk through the neighborhood. As he meandered down the street, Kakashi kept a subtle eye on team seven's kunoichi. Presently, she was glaring at the road as if it had done her some grievous offence.

"Sakura, I called you out here to talk about what you said to Naruto earlier," he broke the silence.

"I'm not apologizing!"

"And why's that?" It was obvious to Kakashi that she was still working the anger out of her system. She'd still probably feel bad about it later, but he'd help her along.

"It's all Naruto-baka's fault for lying and trying to trick me into dates!" She kicked at a stray pebble.

"Is that what Naruto said he was doing?" Kakashi coxed.

"No!" Sakura huffed indignantly, "it's what he was _actually_ doing."

"Or what you thought he was doing. And how did you respond?" Kakashi forced his voice to stay level.

"How do you think!? You were right there!"

"I want to here how you perceived your response," the jōnin pressured.

"I put him in his place, that's what!" she stomped her foot and glared Kakashi to challenge her. Unfortunately for her, Kakashi was more than equipped to take her on. He took a moment to glance around and make his way to a nearby bench. The silver-haired jōnin stopped in front of it and glared Sakura into submission. Once her mouth clicked shut he pointed to the bench.

"We're going to sit right here," the warning in his tone would be unmistakable, "while I describe to you what happened from my perspective." Somewhat cowed, Sakura sat and waited for him to continue. Kakashi slouched into the spot next to her, let his head tilt back and his eye rove over the distant fluffy clouds. It wouldn't do either of them any good if he let himself get frustrated. _I'm one of the top jōnin in the village_, he reminded himself_, there's no way I can get worked up over a kid's fight_. Once he felt his emotions settle, he leveled his gaze at the child next to him.

"You were getting angry at Naruto, and began accusing him of various things. He was obviously confused, but rather than giving him the time to respond you lashed out and left, leaving your teammate confused and hurt."

"He was lying," Sakura glared at her feet, but most of the fight had left her.

"We've all seen Naruto lie. That was not Naruto lying," Kakashi said simply.

"But then he really likes that stuff? That's so gross!" Kakashi let his eye slide shut for a moment, and reminded himself not to let his emotions dictate his response. He focused for a moment instead on the sound of a bird twenty meters back and to the right. He could here a chūnin roof hopping a block away. A young mother and her daughter below them. He let his eye open back up.

"Why is that gross?" he asked quietly.

"Because that's girl stuff!" the kunoichi huffed. Kakashi felt his ire rise, but did nothing to fight it. Beheading a mark was gross. Cleaning up a decaying corpse was gross, feeling lung tissue squeeze through the cracks between your fingers as you ran your hand through someone was gross. Washing the acidic taint of vomit out of your mouth following a nightmare was gross. Sliding on stiff, coarse gloves stained brown from too many layers of spilled blood to do it all over again was gross.

"Then you are unfit to be a shinobi."

* * *

Naruto was silent for a long time. Sarutobi had just about given up on a response when he saw the blond head of hair bob forward. There was a quiet rumble to let the aged ruler know something was being said, but the words were too jumbled to make out.

"What was that?" he prompted quietly, "my ears are old," and that elicited the faintest of smiles to dance briefly across Naruto's lips.

"I can't Henge that long," the blonde repeated. Hiruzen thought on that for a moment.

"Perhaps not, but there are other things that can be done in the intern. You don't need a Henge to buy a dress or put on makeup. I've met a few individuals in the past who although born as men wore heels and went by female titles. You could do that if you wanted," he lit his pipe and puffed on it in consideration;

"There are very few things needed to survive in this world. Food. Water. Shelter. Companionship. Although it may seem like you have to live a certain way, act a certain way, as long as you have food, water and shelter you can physically survive, and as long as you have one trustworthy companion you can live. Once these essentials have been met, the rest is merely conforming to the traditions and habits of your predecessors. There are as many different ways to live a life as there are people who live it.

"If you'd like to live as a girl, then you can live as a girl. If you wake up one day feeling like a girl and the next feeling like a boy then you can live as a girl one day and a boy the next. If you want to live somewhere between being a girl and a boy, then you can do that to. It wont be easy, people wont always be nice, but you wont be alone. You aren't the only one to have these feelings, and you have the support of Kakashi, Iruka, and myself."

The two were silent as Hiruzen watched Naruto think. He'd signaled his ANBU some time during his speech to keep anyone from entering, and could hear the janitor scrubbing on the other side of the door. A shaky breath broke the soft muted sound of bristles on wood.

"Jii-chan… Do you think Sakura-chan and Sasuke'll still like me if I do that? I—I think I want to be a girl, but I still wanna be Hokage and make everyone acknowledge me, and I finally got some friends and I don't wanna lose 'em, and—"

"In my experience," Hiruzen cut the blonde off, voice grave, "being acknowledged means being seen and accepted for who you truly are. If the villagers respect you as a boy when actually you feel like a girl, isn't it just a different side of them hating you as the fox when you're really a child? Either way it isn't _you_ they are seeing, acknowledging, but someone imagined." Hiruzen leaned over to set down his pipe. He didn't feel like refilling it at the moment. The movement dragged the still embraced Naruto forward, and the old leader used the opportunity to pin him with his eyes, trying to let all his love speak through them.

"As for Sakura and Sasuke," he continued, "it may be rough for them to find out their friend isn't who they thought, they may not know how to act for a while, but true friends will pull through for you, and Naruto? Let me tell you a secret," The glassy-eyed blonde leaned in to hear, "I've never seen you do anything halfway. Not even making friends. You may have some fights, some things may change, but I'd bet my hat your teammates will stand by you."

He heard a breath hitch, saw small shoulders shake, felt the rustle of shifting clothes as the blonde lifted orange-clad arms and wrapped them around his neck. With a warm huff across his shoulder the words "Thanks, Jii-chan" drifted into his ear and Hiruzen smiled.

"If you ever want to try something out, but are unsure, you can come try it out on me," he rubbed a few small circles on the blonde's back, "you don't have to do this alone. If you want help talking with your teammates, I'm sure Kakashi, Iruka, and myself are all more than willing to be there with you. All you have to do is ask," Hiruzen surprised himself by pressing a soft kiss into the yellow spikes of Naruto's hair. He hadn't kissed the top of anyone's head since Konohamaru decided he'd outgrown it. He gave the child in his arms one last reassuring squeeze before letting go. Naruto gave him a bright, full smile, then with a rushed thanks and goodbye was out the door tripping over the janitor.

Hiruzen allowed himself a moment of stillness before pulling the mission report from the chūnin into the empty desk space before him and grabbing his pen.

"'The current of the flowing river does not cease'," he murmured as he set to work. He signaled his AMBU that he was ready to let people enter again. _'And yet the water is not the same as before,' _he finished to himself.

* * *

**Thank you everyone who has read this far! Please leave a review on your way out!**

**I've created a community called Transgender Fiction Spot, and am now looking for stories to fill it with. If you have any recommendations, please let either myself or SomethingLacking know. SomethingLacking is on staff for this community, and a fellow writer, so I encourage you to check their profile out!**

**Published:**

**Words: 3,993**


	11. Conversations

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorite thus far!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

* * *

"_There is nothing in the whole world so painful as feeling that one is not liked."_

\- Sei Shōnagon, 1002 CE

* * *

Henge – Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 11: Conversations

_"Then you are unfit to be a shinobi."_

Kakashi-sensei's words echoed through Sakura's head. What was he saying? Kakashi-sensei hadn't said anything like that since—

The Bell Test. Their first attempt where they failed because they didn't act like a team. Sakura heard the hitch in her breath at the same time her anger fled and reason fell on her shoulders like Kakashi-sensei's heavy hands. It seemed like years since Kakashi-sensei had recited before the Heroes' memorial those impactful words: _'Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash,'_ she could remember his solemn tone easily.

They'd been through so much since then; her, Sasuke-kun, and Naruto. Doing chores for D-ranks, then the bloody mission in Wave. Nothing looked the same after that. After watching the light dim in the eyes of countless mercenaries, her nose filled with the tang of blood and ocean-salt and stomach fluid. She came home and it was like watching everything through a glass window.

They had each thrown themselves into their training, determined to get stronger. Her teammates were both moving forward, but suddenly Sakura felt like she was stuck back at that stump. Had she really forgotten the first lesson Kakashi-sensei ever taught them? Had she not grown at all since then?

* * *

Iruka was grading papers when the whirlwind known as Naruto burst through his classroom window. He'd only just sent away Konohamaru and his friends after holding them back for skipping class a few minutes prior, but this was a distraction he'd always welcome. Well, when he wasn't trying to teach anyway.

"Naruto! What a surprise! It's been a while, hasn't it?" the chūnin grinned.

"Hey Iruka-sensei! Have you seen Konohamaru and the gang around anywhere?" Naruto grinned right back.

"You just missed them." The lighthearted exchange continued for a bit, each basking in the other's company and Iruka stood and moved around his desk where he let himself settle against the edge, one leg crossed over the other, and the papers scattered behind out of sight and out of mind.

"So what were you up to after Konohamaru was sent back?" He interrupted a less interesting tangent.

"I talked with Hokage-jiji for a bit then went training!" Iruka chuckled in good humor. That explained the ripe smell.

"Then you lost track of time and rushed over to meet Konohamaru, am I right?" he asked cheekily, "Don't over work it. You train pretty heavily in the mornings to, don't you?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "but Kakashi-sensei makes me train as a guy, so I gotta train on my own to," the blonde ran fingers through the back of his hair and his smile dropped a bit. "Hey, Iruka-sensei? I was talking to Jii-chan, y'know? An' I thought maybe I'd like to try bein' a girl for a bit." Iruka felt his heart lurch in his chest. Was it fear? Anxiety? Shock? As his eyes became just a bit more moist, Iruka decided that no, it was _pride_.

He couldn't say he understood it. He'd thought long and hard about what Kakashi-san had told him that evening at Yakiniku-Q about looking underneath the underneath, but whatever epiphany the jōnin experienced, Iruka didn't share in. He understood enough though.

"You've grown up a bit, haven't you Naruto?" Iruka smiled. Naruto's eyes widened at the statement, then his ear-to-ear grin came back full force.

"You bet!" And just as quickly Naruto sobered up. He held up one finger in a comical mimicry of a teacher giving careful instruction; "But I can't just start bein' a girl an' not say anything, y'know? See, Sakura-chan got really mad at me today, 'cause I was actin' like a girl and she didn't get why," the hand dropped to his side in a fist and Naruto's face turned bright red, glaring at the desk Iruka leaned against, "I can't believe she thought I was gay!" he burst out.

Iruka choked on his spit. He would later blame the coughing fit on chalk dust, but at that moment the main thought running though Iruka's mind was: _So he really does like girls!?_

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei, I… I don't want to be left behind. Sasuke-kun… even Naruto are both getting stronger, but I don't feel like I've changed at all…"

Kakashi looked back at the deflated pre-teen. After he'd snapped at her, the jōnin had stood from the cold stone bench. He'd made it halfway down the block before small fingers grabbed his shirtsleeve from behind. Perhaps a part of him had been hoping for this very reaction, for he'd been walking away instead of simply jumping off. He took a deep, fulfilling breath.

"…Where does your strength come from, Sakura? Where do you want it to take you?" He felt her grip on his shirt slacken, saw a flicker in her eyes, "Sasuke and Naruto already have their answers," Kakashi felt his eye crinkle as he smiled. Sakura was a clever girl; all she needed was a nudge in the right direction.

* * *

It took a while for Iruka to stop coughing. It took even longer for him to stop laughing at the indignant look on Naruto's face.

"Sorry, sorry," but he wasn't, and boy did Naruto know it. Slowly Iruka's laughter died out and he rocked off the desk to give Naruto's hair an affectionate ruffle.

"Are you ready for that?" he asked, "putting how you feel into words?"

"I…" Naruto hesitated, visibly chewing over what he was trying to say, "I want to start doing girl things," the blonde decided on.

"You don't have to explain yourself if you're not ready. Even if they don't understand everything about you, Sakura and Sasuke are your teammates, and you are theirs." Naruto was silent for a moment, the light from the windows behind him casting his face and eyes in darkness.

"Kakashi-sensei spoke with you?" When Iruka received a nod, he pushed forward, "and Hokage-sama as well. I doubt my advice is worth much compared to the Hokage or top jōnin's, but what you tell your teammates about yourself is your choice. If you're not ready, you're not ready. And that's all there is to it."

Iruka turned his attention out the window while Naruto mulled over what he'd said. The shadows had become long while they were talking. If he didn't have a stack of papers still waiting to be graded, Iruka would've invited Naruto out for some ramen. He might end up doing so anyway.

"I think…" Naruto's husky voice cut through the quiet, "I'm ready for them to know, but I don't think I can tell them. Every time I think about telling them I freak out. An' that's just thinking about it. But I feel like if I don't say _something_ I'll explode!" Naruto's voice grew more agitated, though he never shouted,

"I—I had a dream a few nights ago, y'know. Sakura-chan and I were shopping an' I accidentally said that guys're weird and gross, and she said 'you're a guy to' an' I said 'no I'm not,' an' then I freaked out 'cause I'd just told Sakura-chan I wasn't a guy, y'know, but then she said 'oh, that's cool,' an' we bought some mascara an' lip-gloss an' then I woke up and—and—" Naruto took a deep breath – had he not taken one during the rest of his story? His glassy eyes met Iruka's and the agitation in Naruto's shoulders bled into something yearning, "and for a moment I thought it was real."

Suddenly Naruto was in Iruka's arms. When had the blonde moved? _Oh. I moved,_ Iruka realized, _when did I move?_ The chūnin rubbed circles on Naruto's back and gave his arms an occasional squeeze. They stayed like that for a long moment, and it gave Iruka the time needed to compose his thoughts. Even after he knew what he wanted to say, the tanned instructor held his peace until Naruto took a deep breath and moved out of his embrace.

"When you were about…eight, I was transferred to the academy. Before then I was in the field," the blonde knucklehead perked up at the prospect of hearing an interesting story, "I knew I wasn't really cut out for it, but I wanted to serve my village honorably and become a shinobi my deceased parents could be proud of. I thought that meant I had to become a powerful ninja and fight bad guys," Naruto made an enthusiastic noise of agreement, "When I realized my passion was in teaching, I was at a loss. At first I tried to ignore it, but when I realized I couldn't, I started trying to think of ways to tell Hokage-sama I wanted to become an instructor."

"Was it really that bad? How did you end up telling him?" Iruka chuckled nervously at the question and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Well, most non-field shinobi switched over due to injury, so I felt a bit like I was turning my back on my comrades... It ended up being the opposite. Eventually, one of my teammates got hurt because I hesitated in a fight. He recovered, but Hokage-sama decided enough was enough. He told me being in the field was a waste of my talents and that I would 'serve the village best by instilling the Will of Fire into the next generation'," he rubbed the familiar scar running across his nose, noting Naruto's lost face.

"I guess I told you this because I wanted you to understand that even though my situation was very different from yours, I've also thought about having those kinds of conversations. Honestly, I think everyone does at some point."

"Really?" Naruto's voice came across breathily, "d'you really think everyone does?" Iruka closed his eyes in thought.

"It's a part of growing up, I think. Becoming who we're meant to be. Some people don't fit very well with who they're expected to be, and they either tell those around them or hold it in until something gives. Sometimes it's a break like when my teammate got hurt, or gradual like how Hokage-sama noticed and accommodated my interests.

"…I suppose for some, who they're meant to become is close enough to who they are expected to be that nothing much happens at all." Naruto thought on that for a bit, and as he did Iruka took a moment to glance out the window and notice that the sun had already dipped behind the distant buildings and trees.

"I don't fit very well with who most people expect me to be," Naruto's voice drifted over, "Most people think I'm a demon fox. And I don't think Sasuke or Sakura-chan will figure out I feel girlish anytime soon either. …I think I already broke Sakura-chan, anyway, y'know?" Iruka sputtered. _Is that what he got out of it!?_

"You're sure you want to talk with them then?" Iruka confirmed.

"Yeah," Naruto's lips stretched into a huge grin, "I'm not a demon fox or some guy! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Believe it!"

Iruka felt his lips turning and stretching to match Naruto's grin. "That you are, Naruto, that you are," he laughed and Naruto scratched the back of his head as he chuckled along. "Have you thought about how you'd like to tell them?" Naruto's laughter cut off with an 'Erk.'

"I tried thinkin' about it, y'know, but all I could think of was just… just…" orange arms flapped through the air.

"Do you want to tell Sasuke and Sakura at the same time?" Iruka prompted, "or would you rather talk to them individually?"

"Um…"

"…" Iruka took a step back so he could lean against his desk again, "You know… if you can't think of a way to say it, you could try writing them letters. How does that sound?" Naruto made a face.

"Iruka-sensei…. I really hate writing." Iruka sighed. Some things would never change.

"Well, it's a suggestion. You could try slipping it into another conversation like in your dream, or pulling them aside to talk." When no response was given Iruka pushed his next idea forward: "I could go with you if you'd like," his suggestion came out a bit quieter than intended, "I wouldn't feel comfortable speaking for you, but if you want to set up a time to speak with you teammates, I would be more than happy to be there with you. I'm sure Kakashi-sensei would also be happy to help…"

"That… I think I'd like that."

* * *

First her feet took her along the neighborhood towards her house, but as she stood looking at her front door, Sakura decided she was too restless to be indoors and too caught up in her own thoughts to talk with her parents. The next place her feet took her was the park by the lake she and Ino used to play at when they were really little. For a moment she thought about pushing through the shallow barrier of trees to see if Sasuke-kun still sat alone on the dock, but she wasn't in the mood.

After that Sakura sort of wandered. She went by the day market, but the sun was setting so everything was closed. She passed by the academy at one point, but that just made her think sour thoughts about falling behind her genin teammates, so she hurried past. She hardly noticed when her feet carried her across a familiar bridge and away from town.

It was the sound of muffled _thuds_ and the occasional grunt that pulled Sakura from her semi-aware state into alertness. Casting her eyes about, she spotted Naruto off to the side of the field, punching the center of three training posts. _Of course I would end up here,_ Sakura thought with a sigh. She bit her lip and spun around, determined to leave before she was noticed. This was one confrontation she definitely wasn't prepared for. But her feet refused to take that first step away, and after struggling for a minute or two she turned back to the shaded image of her teammate. Dusk had set in, and soon not even the orange of his jacket would stand out.

She tried to call out to him, but no sound would come, so Sakura slowly made her way towards the training posts and the glossy black memorial stone. "Naruto…" She didn't think he'd hear, but the punches immediately stopped and Naruto spun, hands quickly moving to clutch at the front of his jacket.

"S-s-sakura-chan!" He made as if to back away, but before anything else could be said Sakura bent in half, her pink hair tumbling like a sudare screen between them.

"I'm sorry!" she cried, "We're supposed to be teammates, but I wasn't acting like it and I'm sorry!" There was silence, so at least Naruto had stopped his retreat, but it left Sakura standing there, bent in half, and unable to see what kind of face he was making. She wasn't sure she wanted to see what kind of face he was making, though, so maybe it was better that way.

"It's… okay." Sakura felt like lukewarm water had rushed over her. Slowly she straitened up to look at her knuckleheaded teammate. He was still holding the front of his shirt, but offered her a wobbly smile.

"I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. You're still a whole lot more normal than Tenten-san's sensei or her one teammate," Sakura nodded to reassure him she meant it.

"Thanks?"

"And as long as you aren't a perv I don't really mind," she could hear Naruto gulp as her face changed, "but if you ever do become a perv, I won't hesitate to punch you into next week!" She shook her fist emphatically to make sure she got her point across. Naruto began baking up in earnest this time, his arms waving in front of him as if to ward off her wrath, and reassurances tripping over themselves to get out of his mouth.

"So," Sakura's arms fell to her sides and she glanced briefly to the ground, "are we good?" Hearing her change in tone Naruto stopped his rambling and backing away to study her for another moment. No one from their academy class would believe her if she told them Naruto could have such an intense look, but after seeing it a few times – first in Wave, and now here – she knew he'd turned his brain on for something. After a minute scrutinizing her, the blonde grinned.

"Hey Sakura-chan, I'm gonna ask Sasuke to meet with me on top the Fourth's head after our mission tomorrow, an' could you come to? It's not a date or anything—I swear!" She smiled back.

"Sure! Is it a picnic? You weren't trying to snag a date with Sasuke-kun, were you?" she added with a laugh and an elbow to Naruto's side to let him know she was teasing and began leading the way back towards the bridge.

"Ew! Sakura-chan that's gross! I was gonna ask you guys tomorrow before trainin' but then you showed up here," Naruto's eyes widened like he'd been struck by a thought, "what're you doin' out here anyway?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I was thinkin'," Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a bit of a blush.

"Yeah," Sakura sighed as her stomach rumbled, "me to, but now I'm late for dinner, so I'll see you tomorrow." Naruto nodded and gave a small wave as Sakura took off. Her mom was going to chew her out big-time.

* * *

When Kakashi showed up to train his team, he immediately noticed an extra basket set carefully off to one side. It smelled like bread. The next thing he noticed was that none of his ducklings could focus. At all. Naruto kept fidgeting like he was nervous about something, Sakura was bouncing around despite the rigorous workout, and Sasuke kept getting lost in thought. Today wouldn't be much fun for him, he just knew it'd be like fighting an uphill battle to get them to work.

When they took a small break for lunch Kakashi approached Naruto. The blonde had taken his words to heart and made plans to talk with his teammates after their mission. Now Kakashi was distracted as well. When he'd suggested opening up a bit to Naruto he figured gradually or eventually, not immediately after a blowout with one of his best friends. Why did kids have to be so literal!?

He picked a straightforward D-rank mission. No point trying to find one that would simulate C or B-ranks; it would just fall apart. Instead, after several hours washing dogs he released his team for the day. A bit more than reasonably concerned, and plenty curious, Kakashi began trailing his team. At first all that happened was that Sakura grabbed the breadbasket and led the other two towards the market. Sasuke picked up some tomatoes, and Naruto tried to pick up some instant ramen, but Sakura smacked him on the back of his head so he grabbed some fruit instead.

After that Kakashi trailed them up the Hokage monument where he was a bit surprised to spot the chūnin Iruka waiting for them. There was a brief confusion as apparently he wasn't expecting a picnic, but soon enough they all settled down. Kakashi settled along a low hanging tree branch just within earshot and sent the academy teacher a reassuring smile as he pulled out his book. The younger man was tactful enough not to let on that he was there to the ducklings.

He watched as the settled in to eat and make small talk for a bit; their old sensei catching up on how they were doing. Kakashi was beginning to feel a bit unnecessary when Naruto decided to make his move.

"So…um, as awesome as this picnic's been, I was kinda hopin' to talk with you guys about somethin'," Naruto began. The other three stilled and gave Naruto their attention, causing him to shift his seat. Iruka adjusted his position slightly, and the simple movement of aligning his shoulders with Naruto's caused a sudden shift in how Kakashi read the situation. No wonder the blonde liked him so much; Naruto picked up on those sorts of subtle cues remarkably well. And even if Sakura or Sasuke weren't entirely aware they got the message: Iruka was on Naruto's side.

"I've been doin' a lot of girl stuff lately," Naruto continued, "an' its not 'cause I'm a perv or anything!" He looked to Iruka, who gave him a reassuring nod, "'cause I'm not, but there is a reason, an' you're my teammates, so I thought I'd tell you, but you can't tell anyone else, y'know!?" Blue eyes flickered searchingly at his teammates.

"Tch, just spit it out already," the young Uchiha huffed, and Kakashi cringed on his branch in sympathy for Naruto. Apparently Sakura felt the same, because she sent him a warning glare before turning to her smallest teammate.

"Is it something bad?" Kakashi heard her ask.

"Eh…" Naruto looked to Iruka, who decided to help him out a bit.

"Not bad," the brown haired chūnin smiled, "but a bit different."

"We won't tell," Sakura nodded seriously. Sasuke huffed a bit but still nodded.

"…well… y'know… it's just…" Naruto fidgeted, "I don't really feel like a guy."

There was a silence before Sakura, brow's furrowed asked "What do you mean?"

"I feel kinda like a girl?" Kakashi didn't think Naruto meant it as a question, but he was looking a bit queasy. Iruka looked determined, and noticing this, Sakura turned towards him for clarification. Before she could ask, however, the chūnin shook his head and looked pointedly towards Naruto. Both she and Sasuke turned back to their teammate.

"Like your body's wrong or something?" it was Sasuke's quiet question that caused everyone's eyes to widen. _So he's piecing it together_, Kakashi mused. Naruto nodded dumbly, and looked like he was about to ask his own question when Sakura jumped in:

"What do you mean something's wrong with your body?" Naruto turned bright red and mumbled until Iruka gently prodded him.

"Like… it should'a been a girl body but…" Kakashi hadn't thought the blonde could turn any redder than he already was, but apparently he could. Sakura, who understood things best when she could discuss and analyze plowed forward regardless.

"But you're a boy. So why…?"

"Erg!" Naruto bent forward and ran both hands violently through his hair, "'cause—'cause—I don't know! 'Cause it should be a girl body or somethin' instead but its not so it's wrong!" Both Naruto's teammates leaned back at the outburst. Kakashi had to catch his book before it fell and gave away his position. He quickly tucked it away. Sasuke was the first to recover.

"So you want to be a girl?" the dark haired boy asked. Naruto was quiet for a few breaths.

"…no. It's like I should'a been a girl, 'cause I… am a girl?" Now Naruto was looking confused. _Isn't he supposed to be the one who's explaining?_

"But… I want to start doin' more girl things, and I thought I should tell you guys 'cause—" the blonde glanced at Sakura, who flushed a bit and broke eye contact to look down, "'cause we're a team, and you're my friends."

Sakura slowly stood up and walked the few steps necessary to close the distance between them. Then she sank to her knees and drew Naruto into the softest of hugs.

"Always." And it was a promise.

* * *

**Happy Birthday to my mom, and cheers for her surgery going well! Please leave a review!**

**Published: December 4, 2014**

**Words: 4,200**


	12. Rescues and Risks

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorite thus far! **

**This chapter is a bit short, but I wanted to get it out for Christmas.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.**

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"_Things that make your heart beat fast… To wash your hair, apply your makeup and put on clothes that are well-scented with incense. Even if you're somewhere where no one special will see you, you still feel a heady sense of pleasure inside."_

\- Sei Shōnagon, 1002 CE

* * *

Henge – Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 12: Rescues and Risks

Kakashi was beginning to really enjoy his mornings. Some days he still woke up in a cold sweat with a pool of dread in his stomach from the lingering wisps of a memory, but even on the most difficult mornings, the jōnin could work out the worst of his tension in individual training and have meeting with his ducklings to look forward to.

Today, for instance, he arrived to find Sakura tying Naruto's hitai-ate over his hair like a headband and Sasuke keeping a careful distance while still paying idle attention to his teammates. Kakashi was feeling a bit cautious after Natuto's impromptu coming out picnic, but it seemed like a night to sleep on it was enough time for Sakura and Sasuke.

He jumped down to greet the kids, and immediately started hacking. All those things he said about preteen stink? He took it back. No wonder Sasuke was keeping his distance. Someone had dumped a bottle of floral perfume over the bright-colored genin currently yelling about his tardiness.

"I….Ehem! Eh! Achoo!" Kakashi wiped at his eye, "I got lost…." This statement resulted in even more yelling from the smelly kids, and Kakashi took the opportunity to back up. As he drew even with the so-far silent Uchiha, he heard a quiet "hn" and turned to see the brat smirking at him.

"I've got just the mission for the lot of you. Follow me." A few hacking chūnin and knowing looks later Kakashi had all the kids up to their armpits in river water spearing trash.

"You should wear a skirt! All girls with any fashion sense wear either a skirt or a dress!" He heard Sakura exclaim, "I've got this really cute skirt I used to wear at the academy and…." Kakashi let his attention drift away as he tried to picture Naruto in a pink frilly skirt. He thought he'd been really supportive so far, but when he tried to picture Naruto in a skirt, the next thing that came to mind was Minato-sensei in a skirt, and no matter how often he'd heard Kushina-san call Sensei a pretty boy, that was just weird. No, he definitely couldn't picture Naruto wearing a skirt.

With a violent mental push Kakashi focused his attention back on his waterlogged ducklings. Once the mission was completed he sent them home for lunch and a dry change of clothes. He ambled along to hand in the mission report, dodged the more-persistent-than-usual Gai (The YOUTHFUL jōnin had been after him with unusual vigor since the fundoshi incident), and strolled up the steps to the Hokage Tower where he gave his report to a board looking chūnin.

Kakashi grabbed a quick lunch and was back at the training grounds for, well, training. Apparently shaking Gai from his trail took longer than expected, if the "You're LATE!" was anything to go by. All this he noticed only vaguely, because apparently Naruto hadn't gone to _his_ home for dry clothes, but _Sakura's_. She'd dressed the blonde in a thankfully plain red skirt with spandex and a dark brown shirt. Naruto clung to the sides of the skirt like there was no tomorrow, and Kakashi realized for the second day in a row they wouldn't get anything accomplished.

"Can you train in that?" He asked. Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but Sakura cut in before any sound could get out.

"Of course! I wore it in sparring at the academy all the time. It's too small for me, but it'll fit Naruto just fine since he's smaller than me." Naruto flinched a bit when she said that, but didn't say anything. Kakashi felt a bit skeptical, but there was work to be done so he let the subject drop. With a wave of his hand he sent the kids running. Although Naruto seemed much less secure in the new outfit, the only real problem emerged when Kakashi had him spar with Sasuke. The skirt moved different than Naruto's track suit, and he kept pausing to adjust the outfit. Finally, Sasuke seemed to have enough.

"You put on girl's clothes and suddenly you start fighting like one!" He growled, "If a dobe like you won't even fight seriously, it isn't worth the effort!" Sasuke straightened and turned to walk away, even though Kakashi hadn't called the match. Naruto, enraged, began shouting but Kakashi's eye was focused on the frustrated and conflicted look on the last Ushiha's face. There was a rush of wind as Naruto rushed past the jōnin, then his fist was flying through the air at the back of the Uchiha's head. The taller boy spun and with a few quick movements had Naruto on the ground.

"Did you give up on being Hokage so you could become a girl instead?" it came out like a sneer, "don't waste my time."

"Teme! Get off me! I'll be Hokage! Believe it!" Suddenly Kakashi heard a bird cry from directly above his position. Was it that time already? He glanced over. The kids would be fine for now. The argument had moved into familiar territory.

* * *

It took a minute for Sakura to pry the boys apart. Or, well, her teammates apart. Naruto didn't really look like a guy at the moment. Sasuke took off shortly after, and when she looked over, Naruto was pulling at his skirt again.

"You'll stretch it out if you keep tugging on it like that," she scolded, "we should go shopping and get you one that fits better."

"Maybe…" Naruto agreed, but he didn't look too happy about it. "It just feels really weird, y'know? An' I don't want anyone seein' anything—" Naruto turned as red as his skirt, "—_underneath_, y'know?" Sakura felt her own cheeks heating up. She did not need that image in her head. She gave herself a mental punch and switched gears.

"We could get you some capris then? Yours are really baggy and girl's are made a bit different." It was almost like being back in the academy with Ino before their rivalry pushed a wedge between them. Naruto's face brightened at her suggestion, but before anything else could be said they both noticed a cardboard box with some squiggly lines drawn on it and holes cut into one side. Naruto immediately called whoever it was out and a group of kids scrambled out from underneath.

"Naruto-niichan… you're… a girl!?" One of the boys pointed. Naruto turned bright red again and his eyes widened to huge disks. Sakura thought he was going to run away, but instead he swallowed forcefully and squatted down so he could look the kid in the eye.

"Yeah, what of it, huh!?"

"But-! But-!" The kid flailed.

"Konohamaru-kun," the other boy sniffed, "she looks like a girl to me…"

"How could you mess _that_ up?" the third member, a girl sent – Konohamaru – a look that clearly said 'You are an idiot.' Sakura supposed that the other two hadn't met Naruto before today. Konohamaru cast around for a moment, probably trying to find a way to save face in front of his friends, until his eyes lit on Sakura. His arm shot out, his pointer finger aimed very rudely at Sakura.

"You! You're the one who turned my niichan into a girl!"

"What?" Sakura asked. Well sure, she was the one who lent Naruto the outfit and lip-gloss, but it wasn't like she'd forced him or anything…

"Turn him back! Boss promised to play ninja with us today, so turn him back you ugly!"

"Why you!" Sakura cracked her knuckles. She could feel a vein popping on her temple and her fists shivering with energy. This brat needed to be taught a lesson in manners. Naruto, brave idiot that he is, stepped in-between and waved his arms in a 'settle down' manner.

"Ehe… sorry Sakura-chan… Konohamaru," Naruto turned to the other side, "I really am a… not a boy. …Sorry I didn't say anything earlier, y'know?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, but the kid seemed to buy it.

"Fine," The brunet mumbled, and Sakura let her fist relax, "prolly for the best. If she turned you into a girl then you'd have that huge forehead to, humph." Scratch that. The brat was _dead_! Her prey took off, and Sakura went after. There was no way she'd let that brat get away with calling her forehead big! They went up a hill, around a tree, through an alley, into a trash can (Sakura went over), down some park stairs, hopped across benches - and that idiot Naruto had the audacity to _laugh_ \- past a sleeping dog, over a fence, and along a cobbled path.

She'd hardly worked off any steam when the brat rounded a corner and she heard a sharp cry. Her anger quickly leaving her, Sakura hurried over and found Konohamaru lifted off the ground by a mean-looking guy. There was a girl to, and they both looked like skilled ninja. Quickly deciding a confrontation was not the way to go she began to apologize, but Naruto had to run his mouth off at them.

"Let 'im go! Fatso! Ugly!"

"Watch it," Sakura noticed his hitai-ate wasn't Konoha's when he tilted his head to sneer at them, "I hate brats, and I won't go easy on you just 'cause you're a girl," Naruto jerked back as if struck and got that grin on his face that said he was about to do something stupid. Before anything worse could happen the foreign girl put her hand on the weird guy's arm.

"Let it go. We'll get yelled at later." It didn't seem like he'd listen.

"Fine. As soon as I teach this shrimp a lesson," he gave Konohamaru a shake.

"Naruto-ni—Neechan!" the boy cried.

"Let 'im go!" Naruto insisted, and took a step forward. Sakura could see his fists clenched at his sides, starting to lift into position, "Fatso! Your makeup sucks!" Sakura would swear she heard something snap.

"ITS WAR PAINT!" The older guy roared and suddenly Konohamaru was on the ground scrambling over and he was nose to nose with her blond teammate.

"Now look here! This is clearly kabuki war paint!"

"Kabuki's red! Yours is purple! That means its makeup!"

"Maybe I like purple!"

"Maybe you like makeup!"

Sakura heard a sigh and glanced over to see the older kunoichi pinching the bridge of her nose. She quickly looked back to check on Naruto, but the sense of danger had passed. Now it was just another of Naruto's stupid yelling matches. The other girl walked up behind the black-clad shinobi and walloped the back of his head with enough force to send him crashing to the ground.

"Shut up." the sandy-haired girl ordered to who Sakura assumed was her teammate. Taking her cue, Sakura pinched Naruto's ear and dragged him away from the older boy. After a few steps she looked back to see the pair bickering with each other and completely ignoring the presence of the Konoha genin. It would be safest to just turn and walk away, but the pink-haired girl had a nagging sense of duty that wouldn't let her alone. She swallowed and took a deep breath.

"Wait," Sakura called before the two walked off, "Even if our villages are allies, you need permission to enter Konoha. Please state your purpose for coming here." The two turned back, and the kunoichi pulled something out of her pack. Sakura flinched away, thinking now she'd caused the kunoichi to snap, but instead of a weapon she pulled out a wallet. Sakura flushed when she heard the older blonde quietly snort at her reaction.

"You must be really green not to know. We're here for the Chūnin Selection Exam," Sakura took a few steps forward to study the card she'd pulled out. It was a passport into Konohagakure.

"The what?" She heard Naruto ask.

"If you don't know, I'm not explaining it to you," the older kunoichi huffed, "go back to your D-rank changing diapers," she looked pointedly at Konohamaru and the other two – Sakura still didn't know their names, "Maybe in a few years if you don't wash out your sensei will enter you." After that the two left. As they were about to round the corner at the end of the block there was a swirl of something brown and a third person appeared. It must have been their teammate, but the person was small and they rounded the corner before Sakura could make out much else.

Once they were out of sight Sakura let out a relieved sigh and let herself smile. That could have gone much worse. There was a rustle in the tree nearby, but when nothing else happened Sakura gave a shrug. Must have been a squirrel. She was still wound up from the encounter. She felt a sudden pang in her chest wishing Sasuke-kun had been there. She would have felt more confident about the encounter if he'd been there to take charge instead. Then her brow furrowed. It would have been much less frightening if Sasuke-kun was there for her to fall back on, certainly, but then she'd just be hiding behind him like always. And didn't she feel good about having successfully handled it herself? Sakura bit her lip, and with a wave towards Naruto and the three kids clinging to his skirt made her way home.

* * *

Kakashi tucked his book away when Hokage-sama called for the newest jōnin sensei to step forward. Making the half-ram sign he declared his nomination for team seven to join the Chūnin Selection Exam. Asuma and Kurenai followed suit. Hakage-sama gave all of them a hard look.

"It's been a long time since a rookie team entered the exam, let alone three," he challenged their resolve. Before any of the jōnin could say anything, a familiar voice cut through the murmuring crowd.

"Wait one moment please!" the chūnin Iruka stepped forward, "I'm sorry for the interruption, Hokage-sama, I know it isn't proper, but I have to protest! I've taught all of these children in the academy, and they aren't ready. This exam is the real deal." Kakashi could feel Asuma and Kurenai bristle on either side of him, and knew his own hackles were raised. Iruka was a decent guy. He was a great teacher, and Kakashi held a great deal of respect for his ability to put up with both Naruto and his appetite, but Kakashi had been a ninja since before he was born.

"I took the exam when I was half their age," Kakashi pointed out with a bit of steel in his voice. He could hear Asuma and Kurenai whispering warnings, but tact was never Kakashi's strong suit.

"That's different!" the chūnin protested.

"The real issue here is Naruto, isn't it?" Kakashi pushed forward, "But from the moment he put on that headband, he wasn't your kid anymore; he became one of my soldiers." The other jōnin were beginning to whisper and Kurenai decided to tell him he'd said enough, but Sandaime-sama remained stoic. Vaguely, Kakashi remembered that this was Iruka's first graduating class. It couldn't be easy on the man, letting go of his students, but it had to be done. He could tell the chūnin had something else to say, he was biting his tongue, but the man held his peace. The meeting continued, and as the Hokage moved on to other jōnin Kakashi pulled out his book and slowly shifted to the back of the room where Iruka was taking down the minutes.

"Right now Naruto, Sakura, even Sasuke are more focused on other aspects of their lives," Iruka protested quietly, not looking up from his writing, his knuckles white around the pen, "throwing them into the exam… it's too dangerous."

"That's not your call to make," Kakashi drawled back. He flipped a page of his book.

"Naruto… Naruto doesn't even know if he's a boy or a girl. He needs the time to work through that before getting thrown unfocused into a situation he's unprepared for."

"Again, not your call," Kakashi glared at the new page as if It had caused him personal insult, "Whatever may be happening in their personal lives, it's their duty as shinobi to set it aside for any mission or work they may receive."

"You know that's impossible."

Kakashi knew that better than anyone. Memories rushed to the forefront of his mind, and with an almighty shove he pushed them back. That wasn't the issue here. The issue was a chūnin overstepping his boundaries. It was only too bad said chūnin didn't see it that way.

"Is it because the exam is being hosted by Konoha this year?" The man shot Kakashi a look when there was a temporary gap in his writing, "or because of Naruto's importance to the village? He's not ready. None of them are."

"None of them are ready to become chūnin," Kakashi agreed, "but all three of them are ready for the Chūnin Selection Exam." Iruka's brow furrowed, and he took his time to think the statement through before replying in carefully measured words, his patience as thin as Kakashi's own.

"You plan on forcing them to grow."

"They're ready to grow."

* * *

Kakashi left the meeting with three slips of paper and a headache. After arguing with Iruka quietly in the back of the room, he had to convince the man to give him the participation forms early so he could slip out before Gai had the opportunity to latch onto him. He didn't want to know what the man was after; where the Green Beast was involved it couldn't be good.

He'd already dismissed his ducklings for the day, so Kakashi tucked the participation forms into his book pouch and made his way to a discreet training field to complete his daily regimen. After working up a good sweat the jōnin felt much better about how his day had gone. He picked up some laundry detergent and extra polish for his kunai at the convenience store and made his way back to his apartment to fix up some dinner.

The next day he met up with his genin and handed them the slips of paper. A long explanation ensued, in which he explained the genin-chūnin-jōnin system to Naruto, the purpose of the exam to Sakura and the benefits to Sasuke. In the end only Naruto showed much interest. Sasuke seemed a bit more open to the idea after Kakashi told him there would be strong opponents. Sakura looked nervous. He didn't want to scare her off, but there was one last thing that needed saying.

"The chūnin exams are no joke," Kakashi winced at how much that statement echoed a certain chūnin's concerns. He saw Sakura pull her arms into her chest in an instinctive and most likely subconscious move to protect herself. He saw Sasuke's eyes sharpen with the knowledge that Kakashi felt the exam would be challenging enough to merit cautioning them. He looked directly at Naruto who'd shown up in fitted orange capris and a loose yellow t-shirt he kept tugging on.

"They aren't a place for experimenting. You need to wear the clothes you are most comfortable in. Put your hitai-ate where it wont be a distraction-" Naruto froze with his hands where they'd shifted to the forehead-protector-turned-headband, "-and be in top form." Naruto was silent for a few moments, his usual smile gone as he took Kakashi's words seriously. Good. Looking Kakashi in the eye, the blonde gave a single nod. It reminded Kakashi very much of Minato-sensei, but before he could lose himself to nostalgia the look was gone and Naruto was proclaiming his emanate rise to Hokage.

Instructing the kids to rest up and think on their decision, Kakashi took his leave.

* * *

**Published: December 23, 2014**

**Words: 3,547**


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